Where are Your Eyes Fixed?

Where are your eyes fixed?

What are they focused on? What are you looking at?

I'm not talking about the things you watch on TV or online. I'm not talking about your physical eyes at all.

I guess you could say I'm talking about the eyes of your heart when I ask these questions. The internal part of you that looks at your life and what's happening.

Where are the eyes of your heart fixed?

Are they fixed on the challenged you're facing? Or are they fixed on God?

I was challenged by this thought recently, when I was studying 2 Corinthians 4:16-18.

"Therefor we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."

The troubles Paul was referring to here as "light and momentary" were anything but from a human perspective. They were big. They were challenging. He was being persecuted for his bold preaching of the gospel. He had and would be beaten, imprisoned, shipwrecked. Yet, he called them "light and momentary troubles."

How was Paul able to do this? How could he call all of that "light and momentary"?

Paul goes on in these verses to explain how. He spoke about where he fixed his eyes. The place he looked for perspective on his problems. When he kept his eyes fixed on God and what God was up to in them, he was able to call them "light and momentary troubles." It was all about his perspective.

When we look at our problems, the challenging things we're facing, they grow bigger. The more we look at them, the bigger they become. Over time, they'll come to seem insurmountable and overwhelming.

But, if we fix our eyes on Jesus, our problems will shrink. We'll be able to join Paul in calling them "light and momentary." Whatever we choose to focus on is what will grow bigger. So, when we fix our eyes on Jesus, instead of our problems, He grows bigger and our troubles grow smaller.

So, I leave you with the question I started with: Where are your eyes fixed?

Are they fixed on Jesus? Or are they fixed on your problems?

Do you need to change where they are fixed?

What is Freedom?

What do we mean when we talk about freedom?

Why do we see it as something we should purcuse?

What difference does it make in our lives?

These are questions that have been running though my mind the last few days. Today, April 7, is exactly four years since I left the first Set Free weekend (formerly called Encounter God), I would go to.

I left that weekend feeling like I had been finally freed from so many things. I had. But, I had also just begun a journey. If the freedom found in the moment is actually going to last, then we have to change the way we walk. We have to learn to live differently.

That's what these last four years have been about for me. Learning to live differently. As I look back on them, I would say they've been some of the years and they've been some of the hardest years.

They've been the best because of the intimacy of my relationship with God. That intimacy has made it possible to learn to walk differently. I've learned to better listen for God's voice and of the importance of confession and repentance in the moment I realize I've gotten off course.

They've been some of the hardest years because of some of the things I've walked through personally and with my family. Some of it, I'm still walking through now. And often the best and the hardest times have been at exactly the same time.

I've learned that finding freedom doesn't mean life is instantly difference or easier. And it doesn't necessarily get easier - what changes is how we walk through the hard times. Clinging more tightly to Jesus, rather than trying to fond our own way. The things we thought it was impossible to survive, we not only survive, but come out the other side stronger and in a deeper relationship with God.

In John 8:36 Jesus says, "So if he Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." Jesus is the One who brings us freedom. He declares this purpose of His mission on earth in Luke 4:16-21 when He quoted the prophet Isaiah and stated that this Scripture was fulfilled in the hearing of those present in the synagogue that day. Jesus came to bring freedom. That's why we pursue it, desire it.

It is only through freedom in Christ that we are able to begin to live the life God intended for us. We have to be willing to step into a process of learning to live differently.

As I reflect on four years of being intentionally on this journey, I'm realizing it began long before I went to that first Set Free. But, it became more intentional after I went to a Set Free. It was there that I was introduced to a way of living intentionally differently that was clear. And it's a journey I don't want to stop.

A song by Jeremy Camp was the first song I heard as I drove away from that first weekend, and the lyrics of it have become so fitting - particularly the chorus - of what I want to say and how I want to live.

Free (by Jeremy Camp)

 

And I am free

And I am free

My sin was wrapped around me

Trying to drown me

You have set me free

And I am free

And I am free

The chains that held me tightly

Are finally lifting

You took that weight from me

Now I'm free

What Difference Will it Make?

What difference is this going to make in my everyday life?

That's the question I reflect on as I complete any Bible study I've been a part of. It's easy to reach the end of a Bible study and already be looking ahead to the next one we can add to our list of all the ones we've completed. An ever-growing list, an increasing pile of workbooks, an impressive amount of knowledge gained - these things can easily become our goal, even if we don't intentionally make it one.

But, if that's all it becomes, I believe we've missed the point of Bible study in the first place. It's not about all we can accomplish. It's not about gaining more head knowledge. It's not about how smart we can sound in future conversations about that topic or portion of Scripture.

The point of all our Bible study, all our work, all our learning needs to be our relationship with God. it's about allowing God to transform us to be more and more in the image of Christ. The facts we learn, the knowledge we gain is good, but it can't be our focus.

One of the ways I've found helpful in making sure I don't miss the point of the Bible studies I do is to take some time as I finish to reflect on the question: What difference is this going to make in my everyday life?

By asking this question, I slow down and look for the one or two things from the study I'm finishing that affect my life now. It might be a new understanding that changes how I live. It might be a new spiritual discipline I want to incorporate into my life. It might be a challenge to make a change in something in my life.

Whatever it is, by drawing out those one or two things, I keep myself from just checking another study off on a list. Instead, I make it about a growing and deepening relationship with God.

Can I challenge you to have a way of being intentional about paying attention to things so they can make a difference in your life rather than just being something you check off on a list?