The Prize

Setting my mind on things above. I just read an amazing chapter in “The Discipline’s Of A Godly Man.” It was about perseverance. It talked about having our eyes set on Christ just as a runner watches the finish line. The bible talks again and again about thinking about things that are Godly. We are to set our hope on the grace to be given us when Jesus Christ is revealed. I think about Peter in the water, and how if He had just kept His eyes stuck on Jesus He wouldn’t even have noticed the waves and the storm. In that moment Jesus wanted Peter to experience the supernatural, but for that to happen Peter’s focus needed to remain on the face of Jesus. The same is true for us. Our culture is full of distractions and things that capture the attention of our hearts and minds. Many times we are like children, still drinking milk, our attention span to God and His presence only lasts for a few days, couple weeks, or a month and then something comes along that again draws our attention away from his presence. We look at our troubles, or possibly the good things that capture us, money, love, etc., and forget about the amazing things that God was speaking and doing through us. We turn stuff and people into gods. It’s the same thing that the Israelites did throughout the bible. When ever the faced problems they doubted God’s power, even though He had brought water from a rock, parted large bodies of water to evade attackers, and oh yeah delivered them from 400 years of slavery in a truly miraculous way. In quite opposite circumstances they had very similar responses. When ever the land and country was prospering they turned to pleasure, and false gods. They began to have sex and marry out side of their belief system. They threw drunken parties with orgies and worshiped other gods, giving them credit for their blessings. It seems that throughout history God has kind of gotten ripped off. Rather than our minds being on Christ they are mostly on everything but Him. The thing that we must all see and understand is that the only time that Peter successfully walked on water was when His gaze was locked on the face of Jesus. He was only able to navigate the storm when Jesus was all He would allow Himself to see, and boy was it brief. The same will be for us; we will seek Him and FIND HIM when we seek Him with all of our hearts. This is a very hard thing to do in our culture. Picture being in a room with 200 people that are all talking directly too you and you have to push through the crowed to speak to Jesus. Now if at any time you stop and talk with somebody in the room you are able to drown out the other voices so that they become one constant sound and isolate the words of the person you are speaking with. You can see Jesus and in reality He looks very different than every one else in the room. He is very identifiable. The struggle is getting to Him without engaging with anyone else. Now all of these other people have name tags on. They are; depression, worry, money, sex, fame, etc. Some of them are even good when used in the right measure. The problem that most of us have however is we lack the self-control to keep our eyes on Christ and experience good things at the same time. Rather than being mastered by nothing many of us are mastered by what ever engages us in the moment. Since the enemy knows this he tells all 200 people exactly what to say to get our attention and before we know it we are 18, 25, 30, 40 years old and have spent our lives in a conversation with someone that has prevented us from truly living. We have spoken with Jesus from time to time but never for and extended period of time and so now we become callused and hurt that Jesus wasn’t who the bible said He is. But that is exactly who He is we just need to learn the practice of putting the focus of our heart on Him.