Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus

{ December 29, 2009 @ 4:02 pm } · { Faith }

Patience is a virtue that many people, especially believers, struggle with.  I feel there are a lot of things I’m waiting on God for and my constant prayer has always been for more patience.  I sit back and quietly wait until God brings me whatever it is I am waiting for.  Last night, God sort of “hit me over the head” and showed me that I’ve been going about this the wrong way.  As I’m sitting in the Waiting Room (side note: Jeff Henderson did a great series on this at Buckhead Church), my focus has always been on whatever it is I’m waiting for and as a result I have been selfish.  My waiting has been consumed with “me thoughts”– how what I’m waiting for is going to fulfill my needs and my desires.  I’ve let the focus be on me and what I’m missing/lacking and as a result, I’ve been drowning in my own self-pity while what I wait for seems far in the distance.  I have been focusing on what I don’t have and allowed myself to believe that God has chosen just not to bless me yet and I just have to continue being patient until His timing is revealed– another me-focused thought.

The verse that struck me was Matthew 6:24: “”No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money” (NIV).

In the verse, Jesus specifically uses “money” as the example of another master people try to serve but I think you can substitute any idol that we tend to put before God.  In my case, I’m recognizing that I am the other idol.  When I am focused on satisfying my own needs and desires, I am being self-serving.  As Jesus says in the verse above, I can’t serve both God and myself.

God is showing me that I need to readjust my focus.  Instead of focusing on the things I’m waiting on, I need to focus on Him.  My vision should be totally consumed by my Savior and His Glory.  I need to be satisfied with Christ alone and by delighting in Him, I can trust that He will “grant me the desires of my heart” (Psalm 37:4).  Thinking about this reminded me of a hymn I grew up singing:

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.

I love those last 2 lines.  “The things of earth”– all the things I’ve been wishing for and waiting on, pale in comparison to “His glory and grace.”  When my focus is on Him, I’m not left waiting and wishing and struggling to be patient.  When my focus is on Him, I have everything I need and can be satisfied with His love alone.

This of course is nothing new– I think I’ve known all this stuff all along but sometimes God uses things in my life (in this case, a book I’m reading) to wake me up and give me the “ah-ha” moment where His Truth sinks in.  And thus, I have my 1st goal for 2010, however its something I’m going to start working on now in these last few days of 2009.  I want my focus to be Christ and Him alone.

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