Read Isaiah 26:3
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 this song for its simple message. Look at Jesus. Go on, just look at Him! You’ll soon find that the things that arrested your attention and focus just seem to fade in importance.
So many things arrest our attention. In good seasons, we can be lulled into excess and pleasure, entwining our heart with what makes us happy. That’s idolatry. And it’s far less than the best God desires for you.
In difficult seasons, fear and anxiety can obstruct our view of God. We lose faith and hope dwindles because we’ve turned our eyes on our troubles.
How thrilling, then, that all this can melt away as we turn our eyes to look at Jesus.
Isaiah 26:3 puts it best: “You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.”
Perfect peace is ours if we turn our eyes to Jesus and trust Him. So how do you do that?
- Get to know what He’s like.
Read the gospels. Read what Jesus said, how He lived and acted. Be curious about the middle eastern man who came to our earth to love and save us.
- Make it personal.
The gospels are history books. But the main character is still alive. He’s with you. If He changed Peter’s life, then, today, He can change yours. If He embraced Mary in the midst of her mess, He’ll embrace you, too. If He raised Lazarus to life, He can resurrect what’s dead in your life, too.
So, look at Him full in the face today. Perhaps, take a quiet moment to ask the Lord to sanctify your imagination (or as Ephesians 1:18 says “enlighten the eyes of your heart”) and help you picture the face of Jesus that you know from the scriptures. Imagine looking into His eyes. What are His eyes telling you today?
I’ve looked into those eyes a lot this past year during the hardest times. They’ve told me: “You’re loved. You’re cherished. To me, you were worth the price.”
Ben Framstad
Every Day With God 