Fix Your Eyes on Jesus (Part 3)

We established our need of looking straight ahead and fixing our eyes on Jesus as a focal point in our life in part one.  We’ve talked about not looking to the side and getting distracted in life or looking behind at our past in part two.  But how do we practically apply this when all the chaos of life is screaming for our attention?

 

We’ll only have time for one point on this today…Let’s look at the example of the Shunammite woman in 2 Kings 4:8-37.  She was blessed with her first child in her old age but the son died in her arms as a young boy.  Placing him on Elisha’s bed in the small room they kept for him when he traveled their way, she asked her husband to ready a servant and donkey because she needed to go see Elisha.  When the boy’s father asked why she was going, she simply told him, “It’s all right.”  When Elisha’s servant ran out to greet her and asked her if she, her husband and the child were all right, she responded, “Everything is all right.”  When she got to Elisha, she fell at his feet in bitter distress.  Elisha went back home with her and prayed for the son and he was raised from the dead!

 

Talk about a stressful moment in your life!  I’m sure in her head, thoughts were screaming that it was too late and that it was a waste of time to go get Elisha.  At that moment, she chose to ignore the facts in the natural and fix her eyes on Jesus and what he could do in the spiritual.  She refused to speak anything other than the desired outcome that she wanted because she had her eyes so fixed on Jesus and his abilities.

 

We will need to do the same thing when trouble comes our way.  We can’t allow the thoughts screaming for our attention to rule us.  They may be facts, but they aren’t the truth.  God’s Word is the truth.  We will need to recognize the thoughts that are contrary to God’s Word, refuse to receive them and replace them instead with the truth of God’s Word.

 

 A few years ago, I had a sonogram done of my kidney due to having many kidney stones.  During the sonogram, it was discovered that I had an abnormal cyst in my kidney.  I asked the doctor if, by abnormal, he meant cancerous and he said yes.  I had to go for an enhanced MRI to get the full details for the doctor and he told me that when the results came back, he and all the doctors in the practice would look at it together and create a treatment plan for me. He said that they would try not to take my kidney if they didn’t have to.  A few weeks went by before I had the test and the doctor had the results.  That was plenty of time for terrible thoughts to bombard my mind daily, no, make that every few minutes at times.  I would be at work typing something on the computer and the thought would come that I was going to die.  I was never going to see my kids graduate from high school, get married or have kids.  Tears would well up in my eyes (like they are doing now as I remember the intensity of it).  I would go to the bathroom and cry for a few seconds and then I would refuse the thoughts, the lies of Satan.  And I would replace them with the truth of scripture, that “by Jesus’ stripes I was healed,” that “I will live and not die and proclaim the works of the Lord,” and, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.  Who forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases.” 

 

Spoiler alert: When I went back for the results. the doctor told me that I did have a cyst but that it was normal.  I can tell you the exact moment that I received that healing and I’ll share that on another day. 

During this trial in my life, if I had closed my eyes and just meditated on the thoughts of the enemy, I would have been weary and lost heart.  Instead, I fixed my eyes on Jesus, by recognizing the lie, refusing the lie and replacing it with the truth of scripture.  I was not only healed in the end but able to continue on with life and work without falling apart in the midst of the struggle.  I fought back against the stress that tried to come and won by fixing my eyes on Jesus!