“Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:2, GNT).
“I have set the Lord always before me…” (Ps. 16:8, ESV).
“One thing I ask… to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord…” (Ps. 27:4, NIV).
A young Christian is often tempted to be anxious about his or her weaknesses. One of the enemy’s favorite strategies to use against us is to get us to become obsessively introspective. We can become so focused on our floundering that we lose sight of the One who has promised to perfect the good work He started in us.
I believe that a central part of growing up into the freedom of maturity is learning to fix our heart’s gaze on Jesus. The more we are taken with His beauty, the less we will be wrapped up in self-focus.
More and more as the years pass, He will lovingly impart to us how to train our attention constantly on Him. As this happens, we will learn not to worry so much about our faults and failings. By His empowering, little by little, we will become less inwardly focused and more and more absorbed with Him.
Our focal point will become His glorious gentleness and His uncontested power to accomplish everything that is necessary for our transformation process. We will come to lean heavily into His unbreakable covenant commitment to achieve exactly what is needed in us.
This shift of focus is HIS job. He promises to instill in us the power to set our minds on things above, as we seek Him with all that we are. He will teach us how to gaze on Him.
The more He transforms us, the more we will keep our eyes fixed on Him. The more we keep our eyes fixed on Him, the more He will transform us!
The further we progress on this journey in Him from glory to glory, the more richly we will experience this truth: the becoming is in the beholding.
“We know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2b, NKJV).
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When we are struggling with a certain weakness that seems to be getting the best of us, what do you think is the best way to pray about it? How, in those moments, do we focus our prayers on Jesus instead of on our own failings?
Feeding On Jesus 
Yesterday, I watched the first session of Margaret Feinberg’s Revelations study. What struck me so much in that is that John turned around to see the Voice speaking to him and that Margaret pointed out that Moses did that turning around also to see the Voice of God also in the burning bush. I looked up that Word to turn around and it reflects repentance, a turning toward Jesus. That so touched my heart, as it shows me how beautifully God meets us in our suffering.
John was in such a terrible place – imprisoned alone and knowing of the gruesome deaths of those he so loved. So, when his heart hardened at all the pain, Jesus spoke to him to turn him back towards Him to give him that beautiful vision in Revelations.
So this bit of what you shared so resonated with me:
“This shift of focus is HIS job.” We NEVER stop needing Him to do that for us, as John shows us so beautifully.
That focus He gave me on that particular portion of His Word led me to ask Him to turn me toward Him too. I knew there was something keeping me from Him that morning, and in asking Him to be the One to turn me toward Him, He uncovered it by breathing out His Spirit upon me throughout the day, drawing me so near by His Word to me – giving me Himself, which lifted away my burden.
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This is so, so cool. Really spoke to me in a striking way. Thank you Anna!
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Staying vertical here in AZ! Great post and thank you.
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It always makes my heart smile to hear from you, dear sister!
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