Look at Jesus, and You Look Away from Yourself

 

"Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." (Hebrews 12:2)

We are not supposed to look at ourselves.

But the problem for so many of us is that we focus on "not looking" at ourselves.

We need to look at Jesus!

The word "looking" is ἀφοράω aphoraó in the original Greek, which means "to look away from all else."

We want to look at Himself, not at ourselves.

It's not about us. It's never been about us, our feelings, our thoughts, our trials, our troubles.

Jesus, who holds the Universe and everything in it altogether (Colossians 1:15)

There are lots of noises, fears, premonitions, concerns, regrets, bitter feelings, bad memories, worries, outrages that can well up insde of us.

For me, there was often drama in the back of my head. That's the locus for those distractions. For other people, they may sense something in front of their minds, on the side, etc.

All of these fiery darts can distract people in such terrible ways.

But again, the solution to these distraction has to be more than a mere negation. We need to look at something, or better yet SOMEONE better!

That Someone is Jesus!

He is the Author and Finisher of Faith! He is the one who inspires our trust, and causes us to rest from all our painful toil and self-serving slavery.

It's all about seeing Him at work in and around us. He is our life. He is our health, He is our new identity before God the Father:

"But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 6And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:" (Ephesians 2:4-6)

and

"Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world." (1 John 4:17)

We have a new identity in Christ. We are a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).

It's all about him.

We no longer look at ourselves, as though we have to compensate for God missing something or overlooking a need in our lives:

"1If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 2Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 3For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 4When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." (Colossians 3:1-4)

Too many Christians are not looking to Jesus. They look to Jesus and something or someone else. They look to Jesus and their problems. They look to Jesus and other people in their lives. They look to Jesus and the church, their traditions, their past, the opinions of others, their memories.

All of this is doomed to fail. Jesus is our success, our life, our new Gospel hope. There is no reason, no right for us to look to anyone or anything else to see us through.

For this post, and I hope for all future posts, there will be less focus on myself, but more on Himself.

I will add this part, though: for a long time, I was quite confused about what the thoughts, drama, issues, hurts, worries that would emerge in the back of my mind. For too long, I was convinced that I had to do something about them.

Today, I realize how all of this is just focus on self. That is precisely what Daddy God frees us from when we look at Jesus!

We look to Him, and we look away from everything else, including ourselves!

All of the negative thoughts and feelings, all of the pains and the hurts, all of this mess just falls away as I look to Jesus!

He is indeed the End of all our Struggles! YES!