Looking to Jesus

Two boys were playing in the snow one day, when one said to the other, “Let us see who can make the straightest path in the snow.” His companion readily accepted the proposition, and they started. One boy fixed his eyes on a tree, and walked along without taking his eyes off the object selected. The other boy set his eyes on the tree also, and, when he had gone a short distance, he turned, and looked back to see how true his course was. He went a little distance farther, and again turned to look over his steps. Yet a little further when he heard a voice from behind him. He turned to look and exchange a few words with his little sister, then continued on his way. When they arrived at their stopping place, each halted and looked back. One path was true as an arrow, while the other ran in a zigzag course. “How did you get your path so true?” asked the boy who had made the crooked steps. “Why,” said the other boy, “I just set my eyes on the tree, and kept them there until I got to the end; while you stopped and looked back and wandered out of your course.” 

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run the race with patience the race that is set before us, 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 God.” Hebrews 12:1&2

Remember the story, of the little boat in the storm on Galilee? Of how Peter asked Jesus to command him to step out on the water and come to Jesus, and how He did? And then remember that Peter began to sink? Why did he sink? It was because he started to look around him. He looked at the the towering waves, he felt the angry wind, perhaps he thought of what the other disciples were thinking. Maybe he even turned around to make sure they were watching him. Whatever he was thinking, he took his eyes off Jesus and began to doubt His power. What a deady trap to fall into! Peter nearly drowned that day and had it not been for Jesus immediate response to Peter’s frail cry for help, he would have been a lost man.

In our life, it’s so easy to take our eyes off Jesus. 

We’ve all just gotten home, back to our old life, back to our old friends, old temptations and old busyness. Often our old friends will make it hard to keep our eyes firmly on Jesus. Maybe they make fun of us, maybe they tempt us to disobey and maybe they’re just a distraction. Maybe they think we’re weird. No one wants to be weird. But to us, it should’t matter anymore what our friends think of us but what Jesus thinks of us. He is the One who has given us a new heart and a new life and who paid for our Salvation with His life.

Keep looking unto Jesus! Never take your eyes off Him! And when you feel yourself beginning to fall and fail, call on His name. He will be there immediately to pull you up a step higher.