focus

Where are you focusing your attention?

One of the most powerful, helpful scriptures in the New Testament is found in Hebrews 12:2, "Let us fix our yes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith."

We are to fix, we are to focus on Christ.

I've been thinking about what it means to look to Jesus.

Here's what I know:  to look to Jesus means that we look away from everyone, and everything else, and fix our attention and the inward gaze of our lives on Him alone!

Almost every story of "backsliding" that I have ever heard (people turning away from God) finds its roots in the statement, "I got my eyes off of the Lord, and I got them on people...and people let me down."

Now, you have heard me say many times that we really do need each other.  It's not just "Jesus and me," it is "Jesus and we".

However, people will let you down.  That's a fact.

Every church that I have ever pastored, I have found people who just flat our disappointed me.

People will let us know.

And what makes it even harder is when people close to us let us down.

And....just as hard, is when I let other people down.  That bothers me just as much if not more.

As a pastor, I am called to be holy, but I am also called to be human.

People desire to look up to someone who is an example of holiness.  But they also desire to be close to someone that they can relate to.

The idea is to walk the "tightrope" or balance of striving for holiness but at the same time recognizing that no one is perfect.

So, I will let you down, you will let me down, but there is one person who will never, ever, let us down.  That is Jesus.

The pioneer and perfecter of our faith, the originator, the consummator, the trail blazer, the author, the finisher of our faith.

I would suggest today that we need to look away from everyone and everything else and look to Him!

Some of us are trying to find happiness and meaning in life in relationships, or in our job, or even in our ministry here at the church.

Some of us in our church family are experiencing a lot of hassles, pressures and disappointments in life.  You know a lot about hurt feelings, guilt and broken relationships.

Some of you have been accumulating a long list of gripes.  Things haven't been going right and people around you have let you down.

Will you look away from everyone else, and everything else and right now look to Jesus?

"Father, others have let us down.  We have let others down.  Help us, Lord, to keep our focus on you.  Amen."