Who am I? A woman created by God, for God’s purpose
Why am I? Created to love God and be His light in this world
Where am I going? From this life to the next life, I am destined for Heaven.
We are all dying. We just don’t know when.
From the day we were born, the timer, so to speak, of our days went into motion.
God, the author and finisher, determined the times set for each of us.
It is amazing to me how unprepared I am for the most important destination of my life. Yet, when I prepare to take a vacation to somewhere I have never been, I gather maps and brochures and do the research long before I ever get in the car or board a plane. I wonder why I don’t spend as much energy preparing for my ultimate destination, Heaven.
Sure there aren’t brochures or travel agents, but we have God’s word and the testimony of those who have gone before me. Still, heaven seems distant, far off, and not a reality. Yet, we are told that heaven and the promise of eternity is to be our greatest reality and our source of patience and courage.
Take a look:
“Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross…who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” Hebrews 12:1-2
- The witnesses are those, in the faith, who have gone on before us, and now are in God’s presence.
- The race marked out for us is life’s pilgrimage towards Heaven.
- The way to persevere is to fix our eyes on Heaven, on Jesus, on things above
- This fixation fixes us so that we do not lose heart.
Sadly, most of us don’t have this fixation, atleast not all the time.
All of us have a hunger for things above, but sometimes we don’t realize that the restless or empty place within is really a stirring for more of God’s Presence in our life. We hunger but are not skilled in how to fill the hunger pangs. We’ve grown lethargic and have become so earthly-minded that we’re of no heavenly good.
It’s time to re-learn the skill of fixing our eyes on things above.
The word fix in the English language means to mend or to fasten. But in the Greek the verb skope, which is to fix, simply means the intensity of a gaze or a determined searching.
Heaven and the things above were meant to be our fixation or our Fix! It’s to be our longing like being in love, where just the thought of it gives us courage. When we fix our eyes on Jesus, it fixes us.
Let’s simplify this:
To fix our eyes on Jesus simply means to have a determined upward gaze and search for more of Him in the middle of our real-life happenings.
This fixing will take intentional work at first.
It might even take an alarm to remind us….Oh, the alarm went off, it’s time to fix my attention upward again today.
Whatever it takes, let’s make that our aim. Fixing our eyes on Jesus, that we will have strength and courage to run our individual life’s race, and as we fix our eyes upward may that fixing, fix us!
Today’s Prayer
Father, it’s so easy for me to get lost in everything around me. I have so much to do, and places to go. I get caught in the whirlwind of my own life. In that place I often don’t even think of looking up. Remind me. Teach me. Lead me. Change me. I want my fixation to be on you, on my eternal destiny. I want Heaven to be my reality. I want to Live Like It’s Real, because it is.
