Looking Unto Jesus

My wife Peggy and I have found lately in times of struggle, when believing God just seems useless, no matter how we pray, nothing, no answer, no change … we come to the point that we want to ask, "why God?" But we don't, remembering that we are the ones that limit God by how we perceive Him, as to His greatness, wisdom, love and mercy. So we go on … not by what we see but by faith alone.

And sometimes it feels like you are alone.

If I may, I would like to give a few thoughts that just might encourage you in the Lord, as you continue in your faith walk. Most of what I write won't even be scripture, but I prayerfully hope it will be from God. All of the words won't be mine only, but from others I have learned from.

Let me give some thoughts for you to think about … well, since thinking involves the mind, maybe I should say some thoughts to ponder; not with your mind but with your heart. Your mind may not understand, but your heart and spirit may.

We need to impress upon our hearts the knowledge of the love God has for us, and to recognize that God is at every moment, intimately present with us. There is no moment when His eye is off us, or His attention is distracted from us, and no moment therefore, when His care falters.

The Lord has been asking me lately, "Do you trust Me?" We need to learn that when we struggle with doubt, worry, fear, or even if we can trust Him, we can come to God with confidence knowing we are able to tell Him what He already knows about us … that we fail … asking Him for His grace and mercy in those times of weakness and then we shall find the strength to overcome those weaknesses.

I am not counseling you to disregard the things you see … that is impossible. The problems are real, the situations that are around you are real. The world, the flesh, and the devil join forces and assault the mind and soul so untiringly that without the ever present aid of God, they drag the soul down in spite of all the resistance against them.

If you are like most people, when you have a need and you go to God in prayer, while you are in prayer faith arises in your spirit and you can see the problem being answered by the Lord. Faith is strong when you are shut away with the Lord.

But as soon as we come away from our prayer time and get back into the real world and we see nothing has changed yet, our faith starts to drop. Why is that?

We stop looking at Jesus and start looking again at the circumstance.

The writer of Hebrews says in the Amplified Bible … "Looking away [from all that will distract] to Jesus …" (Hebrews 12:2) Looking away from the circumstances of the problems you may be facing, looking away from what distracts our attention from the Lord.

The K.J.V. says … "Looking unto Jesus …" In the orginal Greek it means … "to look and consider attentively, to the end" (indicating the point reached or entered with intent or purpose) "to Jesus."

We need to keep looking unto Jesus and only glance at our circumstances … not glance at Jesus every once in a while during prayer and then spend the rest of our time looking at the circumstances or problems. You can't focus on both at the same time.

Okay, that sounds great. But reality sets in and when it does we find ourselves in what feels like the forth verse of Psalms 23 … "I walk through the valley of the shadow of death." Well, aren't we? Have you ever felt like you wanted to just give up and die? All of us are going to face death someday … and it's likely that most of you have already been confronted with the death of a loved one, a parent, a child or your spouse.

Another word for this valley would be … life. As you travel down this road of life, the vehicle we use is called … faith. This road of life can have many potholes. Some God puts in our way, but most of them are just life itself. Many of them we can drive around, others we can't. Some small potholes will give you a little bump and we go on. Bigger potholes can damage a wheel when you hit them. There are a few people who drive unknowingly (though no fault of their own) into huge potholes that wreck their whole vehicle of faith and need someone to help pull them out. That's why I write … I'm here to help give you a hand if you need it.

The reality is … life is sometimes cruel and difficult as we "walk through the valley" of whatever. But don't miss the most important word in this phrase; the word … through. You won't stay in this valley, you will reach the other end.

Nicholas Herman, a seventeenth century Carmelite monk from French Lorraine wrote the following statement …

"God has many ways of drawing us to Himself. God often permits that we should suffer a little to purify our souls and oblige us to continue walking with Him. The greatest glory we can give God" (during these times in the valley) "is to distrust our own strength utterly, and commit ourselves and our loved ones … wholly to His safekeeping." We must not give up, no matter what comes our way.

Peggy gave me a rule to live by many years ago, and I believe it's true. She says, "If it won't change where you spend eternity, then it doesn't really matter."

Oh, there will still be questions, more questions than answers most likely.

I have some, like … Is God unfair? Is it in His nature to be unfair? Is God silent? What is He telling us when He is silent? How do we reconcile the exalted words of the New Testament with the everyday reality around us? The simple answer is … faith.

Remember I stated earlier that … sometimes it feels like you are alone. Well, you're not. But God wants your heart to be … His alone.

That same old French monk stated that we should … "Cast everything out of our heart, for the heart must be empty of all other things because God will possess the heart alone; so neither can He act there and do in it what He pleases, unless it be left vacant to Him."

The heart's not vacant if we let worry, fear, doubt or concern for the cares of this life dwell there. So, even though your heart may cry out … "this is such a mess" … God knows it's a mess. And He already knows how to fix it.

Let's get out of His way and allow Him to fix the problem we face … without trying to tell Him how to fix it. He knows what needs to be done.

Psalm 25:15 … "Mine eyes are ever toward the LORD; for He shall pluck my feet out of the net." Confirmation that … it's not mine to fix.

Looking unto Jesus means … keeping our eyes upon Jesus instead of the situation.


Comments welcome.