‘Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith’ (Hebrews 12:1-2).
Looking unto Jesus, or fixing our eyes upon Jesus; this is in the present continuous tense.
Faith is not a once-done act, it is a continuous gaze of the heart to God. It is directing the heart’s attention to Jesus; lifting up the mind to “behold the Lamb of God” and never turning away from that beholding for the rest of your life.
True, there are distractions that capture and divert our attention and hinder our progress but, if the heart is truly committed to Him, our wandering thoughts are called home after each brief excursion into the wilderness, and our gaze will return to rest upon Him who is the only source of life, like a wandering bird returning to its window.
It is this one volitional commitment, that establishes the heart’s intention to gaze upon Jesus forever, that God takes as our choice and makes what allowances He must for our humanity and the thousands of distractions that beset us in this evil world.
The faith of which Jesus is the very author and perfecter amounts to a changing of our focus from self to God. Whenever we lift the eyes of our soul to rest upon God, we are sure to meet friendly eyes gazing back at us; “For the eyes of Jehovah run to and fro throughout the whole earth”(2 Chronicles 16:9).
When they eyes of the soul looking out meet the eyes of God looking in we know that we are in the presence of God and can say “Thou God, seest me”. This is as close to heaven as it is possible to get on earth.
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