Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus

Have you heard the song, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus?”   This morning, the song’s lyrics resonated in my spirit: “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face…and the things of Earth will grow strangely dim…in light of His glory and grace.”

When I turn my eyes upon Jesus…all else fades. The worries. The problems. The fears. The stress. The burdens.

There remains Jesus, the One who saves.  There remains Jesus, the One who paid it all. There remains Jesus, the One who empathizes with my pain and struggle. There remains Jesus, The Way, The Truth and The Life.

But, so often, other things distract me from Him. The schedule of the day clouds my vision. The pressure of people’s needs fills my eyes. Things another woman is doing, pull me, almost subconsciously, in another direction.

What do we do – when we want Him, but get distracted by everything else?

This morning, as I closed my eyes, somewhat pondering this thought with God, what came to mind was: Horses wear blinders for a reason.

What was the reason? I got out my phone to look deeper.

Apparently, horses have 350-degree vision. This means that they can see everywhere but directly behind them. This also means that they can get extremely distracted. A neighboring horse can pull them off track. A plowing machine hooked on them, can appear to them as a predator and cause them to react. A wild and cheering stadium can make a race horse go berserk.

They must have a narrow and limited view on what matters so they don’t get thrown off by what doesn’t matter.

So must we!

How might God be calling us to limit our view today? What vision is actually distracting us more than helping us?

Is seeing social media images leaving us discouraged and sad or is it uplifting us and filling us with things of God?

Is that gossipy neighbor someone God wants us continually looking at and listening to?

Is focusing on portending doom actually helping our mind, or is worry zapping us of faith?

Is our well-laid-out fix it scheme the way, or is prayer?

Is seeing offense our way, or is becoming blind to offense and full of love, a more prosperous road?

Often, as we blind negative things we gain greater vision pertaining to things of God.

Paul, in the Bible, became blind for three days before he gained sight that opened a radical ministry of the Lord.   Are you, like Paul, willing to put blinders on in order to see more of God?

Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. The things of Earth will grow strangely dim, in light of His glory and grace.

Prayer: Father God, You are what I want. You are what I need. You are what I want to fix my mind on. You say, you keep in perfect peace those whose minds are stayed on the Lord. Let that be said of me. Let that be known of me. More of You and less of what I think I need. Be my vision. Be my hearing. Be my hope. Be my all in all. I want you more than anything else. Give me all the grace I need today to keep my eyes, ears and focus on you and show me what I might need to let go of. Show me what I might need to become blind to in order to see more of you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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