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Key Bible Verse: "Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go" (Joshua 1:7,NIV). Bonus Reading: Joshua 5:13-6:5

During my junior year at the University of Alabama, I realized I wasn't as focused as I thought I should be. About that time, I memorized [today's Key Bible Verse]. Those words hit me hard. I'd been careful to obey God's laws. But as I repeated those words day after day, I realized two new things:

First, if I did everything God told me to do, I'd be successful. (I don't equate being successful with having a lot of money or being famous, but with living a good life.)

And second, I was struck by the phrase, "Do not turn from it to the right or to the left." I became convinced not only that I was not to go off the path, the command was to not even turn. I realized I was so busy looking left and right that I was missing what was in front of me. I'd been distracted by other things. I needed to turn my focus onto God.

Putting Joshua chapter one into action was hard, but I kept thinking, I want to go for God's definition of success. And I began to change. Up until then, I'd done the things I was supposed to do with three-quarters or half a heart. Now, though, God became the center of my life.

—Shaun Alexander in Touchdown Alexander

My Response: What distraction must I eliminate to follow God single-mindedly?

Thought to Apply: You can't fight hard unless you think you are fighting to win.—THEODORE ROOSEVELT (26th president)

Adapted from Touchdown Alexander (Harvest, 2006) by permission.

Copyright © 2007 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

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Prayer for the Week

Give me the resolve and strength, Lord, to take a definite stand for You and consistently live it out.

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