A farming dad at another time was teaching his young son how to plow a field. So he told him to look beyond the field and pick out something and keep his eyes on that, such as a tree, and that should enable him to plow in a straight line! When he came back and couldn’t believe it as the plowing was not in straight lines but zig-zagged all over the field. He asked his son what had happened and his son told him he picked out a cow in another field and kept his eye on the cow- the problem was the cow kept moving! His dad meant he was to fix his eye on a fixed object like a tree, not a cow that moves!  Funny story but we too are like that we fix our minds and follow those things that are unstable and take us away from God and not to Him such as those things that distract us from trusting the LORD Jesus and fixing our faith in Him. Things that distract and divide us and cause us to live spiritually and emotionally unstable lives, for example…

* Are you weary? Look Away to Jesus, who “gives strength for the weary” -{Ish 40:31}.

* Are you disheartened? Look away to Jesus who gives encouragement and hope – {Rom 15:4}

* Are you overwhelmed? Look away to Jesus who is able to lift you out of it -{Ps 61:2}

* Are you Guilt-ridden? Look away to Jesus who bore all your condemnation and has forgiven you -{Rom 8:1}

* Are you worried? Look away to Jesus who gives peace to the worrier- {Phil 4:6}

* Are you afraid of the future? , Look away He is your future and Shepherd you shall not lack-{Psalm 23:1}

* Are you afraid you won’t be able to do the right thing? Look away He has given you “…everything pertaining to life and Godliness….I can do all things through Christ who infuses me with strength -{2 Pet 1:3-4. Phil 4:13}.“My God shall supply ALL of your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ.”-{Phil 4:19}

WHERE ARE YOU LOOKING, what are you continually thinking on?

LOOK away from all else to JESUS!

“Run the race set before you looking away to JESUS”

  • “Looking away”{Aphorao}-“To turn the eyes away from other things and fix them on something.” The word also means “to turn one’s mind to something. Both means are applicable here, the spiritual vision turned away from all else and together with the mind, concentrated on Jesus -{ {Wuest}.

“The idea is to direct one’s attention without distraction.”- {preceptaustin}. It’s in the “present tense” which speaks of a way of life. A habitual attitude- which we need to run with perseverance and live by faith in Him. It’s been said to “have eyes only for Jesus.”  We gaze at those in Hebrews 11 for encouragement who lived by faith and ran with perseverance the life marked out before them, but we must learn to look, and linger on Jesus,  including His Person,  Perseverance, and Position as exalted as seen in Hebrews 1:1-3

The word speaks of looking away from all else to Jesus. Looking away from all that would divide, distract to looking with undivided attention from something to something, in this case, look away from all to Jesus and His Person, Perseverance, Position.-{Hebrews 12:1-3}.

* A good study is to look back at the Bible references above and read them, as faith comes by hearing…and His Word strengthens us…

  • Look away from all else and fix your gaze, mind, on Jesus who He is, what He has done, what He is doing, What He says, Promises. How? Look to Him in His Word and meditate, memorize, and apply His Word depending upon His Spirit to remind you of Him as we are prone to g forget and look elsewhere we are so easily distracted, but even this is an opportunity to acknowledge this and ask Him to train our minds to continue to develop a new habit with greater consistency in looking away from all else to… Look to Jesus in any and all circumstances!

Weariness, Disheartened, Overhwhelmed, Guilt-ridden, Worry, Fear of the Future, Fear of not being able to do right…. all of these and much more are those things that seek to get in between us and our LORD Jesus, to distract us and divide our attention by captivating, controlling our thoughts. They are like following the cow, they lead us all over the place emotionally, spiritually,

“But God” has supplied us with the Spirit of God, and the Word of God to point us to the LORD Jesus, and by faith we come to Him asking Him to help us to remember Him and we feed our minds and hearts with His Word so the Holy Spirit can recall to our minds to aid us in such times of temptation!

May He remind us when these temptations and such come to mind to immediately Turn our minds to Jesus and as the writer of Hebrews in Hebrews 12:1-3 point us to His Person, Perseverance, Position.- Exalted One. Fix your gaze on Him.

Dependent upon Him,

Deriving all from Him,

DELIGHTING IN HIM!– (Read Heb 12:2-3, Phil 3:1}

God Bless,

Aidan,