Heb. 12:2, 3 Monday

The first week in October, after looking at who God is in September, we started looking at ourselves, i.e. who we are and what we should do as a response to who God is. The first week in October, we meditated on being still; the second week we meditated on not being condemned. This week I want us to meditate on the verse that has gotten me through life (not just part of it, but all of it), but especially during the hardest times. If you’ve read Thursday’s meditation last week, (the incident with the foot-washing) fixing my eyes on Jesus was how I got through it. There was simply no way I could have not grown weary and lost heart, as whoever this author is, tells us to do, had it not been for this verse. Even though it looks like this is a lot to memorize, I’m only concentrating on a few key words.

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Hebrews 12:2, 3

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus…

Back when I was going to Lamaze classes getting ready for David to be born (I didn’t have to go when I had Laura. Breathing correctly would not have done any good with her delivery, but that is another story in and of itself) I was told to bring a picture or something else I could look at, to “fix my eyes” on to distract myself from the pain. (Those of you who’ve had natural childbirth, know it may be free from medication but it’s definitely not free from pain and no amount of fixing your eyes on anything is going to make the pain go away.) (Melanie you may be different because you had Jarrod. Oh well…). But the concept of fixing our eyes on Jesus is much the same concept.

What does fixing your eyes on Jesus do? It does lessen the pain of what we’re going through. Ladies, my mantra that I don’t frequently share with everyone since it sounds so negative, is “Life is hard and then you die.” I hate to say it, but that is so true and just the way it is with most Christians. I once heard of a Christian woman who was a fine woman who knew the Bible backwards and forwards but had no influence because she had never suffered. God knows that the only way we’re going to walk closely to Him, is to be tested in the furnace of affliction, i.e. suffer.

Fixing our eyes on Jesus also makes us stop watching the winds and the waves. You all know the story so I’m not going to repeat it. But when Peter took his eyes off Jesus, when he was walking on the water, he began to sink when he saw the winds and the waves. My sisters, from my own personal experience (yours may be different from mine; I hope it is) MY OWN BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN THE LORD HAVE BEEN THE WINDS AND THE WAVES. Satan knows if we keep our eyes on each other, we’ll never be able to fix our eyes on HIM, who is able to keep us from growing weary and losing heart. And that is exactly what Satan wants. Satan is a murderer and a liar and his only intention is to kill. He wants our spiritual death. He does not want us to have the life that is truly life—the life of life and peace.

Fixing our eyes on Jesus puts our suffering into perspective. Can I really compare my suffering with Jesus’ suffering? All I have to do is to read Philippians 2:5-8 and Isaiah 53 to get just an inkling of how much Jesus suffered. And all I have to do to get a visual image of how much Jesus suffered is to watch the move The Passion. I had no idea how bad it was going to be. I cannot imagine how I would have felt had been there in person. Would I have been hurling insults to? And can I really realize that it was because of ME that he suffered?

I could go on and on about what I’ve learned about “fix your eyes on Jesus,” but this is enough for now. Ladies, if we put this verse into practice, I mean really put this verse into practice, our lives are going to get much better. We’re going to get our eyes off ourselves—from “woe is me” to “who is he”? People’s opinions are going to be just that—opinions. And our suffering is going to be nothing compared to Jesus’.