Focus Your Eyes of Faith

When I was nine years old I gave my heart over to Jesus Christ as my personal Savior. Throughout my teen years and for a few years in my next decade I had saving faith but I lacked living faith. I had great spiritual moments at church and with churched youth but I also hung around a lot of people who had no relationship with Christ. When I was around twenty, I realized that my life lined up more with the worldly Christian than the spiritual Christian (as Paul wrote about in 1 Cor. 2-3). The Holy Spirit convicted me about this and I knew I needed to better align my life more with Christ and the way of Christ so I began to change who I hung out with and what I did, seeking to focus more on consistently being a God-honoring person.

Christ-followers often read, hear, and know that Jesus is most important in life but yet we get distracted easily. It may be by people or things like circumstances, thoughts, feelings, and busyness. It may be spiritual warfare. It may be God testing our faith maturity. Whatever it is many of us succumb to distractions when it comes to truly following Christ.

Consider this familiar Bible moment of Simon Peter. During the night while some of Jesus’ disciples were in a boat Jesus came to them walking on water. They were afraid but Peter spoke up and stepped out of his comfort zone.

Matthew 14:28-31 (ESV) ²⁸ And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” ²⁹ He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. ³⁰ But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” ³¹ Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”

Peter was first to speak to Jesus and was the one willing to step out of the boat in faith to walk to Jesus. As Peter walked on water to Jesus he saw the wind (or better understood as the effects of the wind on the waves and himself) and Peter took his eyes of faith off Jesus and focused instead on his circumstances and he began to sink and was afraid. He cried out to Jesus for help and Jesus helped him but also gently rebuked Peter for his little faith, his doubt. As our faith dependence on Christ increases, our fleshly fears and doubts will diminish.  

Keeping our eyes of faith focused on Jesus is vital regardless of our circumstances and feelings.

Simon Peter was a leading disciple of Christ who had some great strengths and he also had some weaknesses and mess-up moments the Bible records for us like when Peter rebuked Jesus’ prediction of His own upcoming death and resurrection and when Peter cut off someone’s ear who came to arrest Jesus and one of his lowest points was when he denied Christ three times.

I have denied Christ, how about you? Four of us middle school buddies were sitting at a library table at school one day when one of them started asking about our religion and church involvement. The one kid whom I thought of as a rebellious rule breaker said he was a Christian. I thought, what? No way. Then came my turn. Even though I was actively involved in a Christ-centered Baptist church and I had been a saved Christian for a few years I told those guys that I don’t go to church and I’m not religious. I lied and did not confess my true faith in Christ. I was very convicted by the Holy Spirit afterwards. I confessed that sin, accepted God’s forgiveness, and asked God to help me repent of that. I still struggled in my teen years living two lives, the one with the churched youth group Christians and the one with my schoolmates and neighborhood friends who were not saved. I was half-heartedly following Christ much of that time and He calls us for so much more than that.

Peter denied Christ and wept and I believe he went through spiritual conviction and godly sorrow afterwards. Then during one of His later interactions with the resurrected Christ, Peter needed to be reminded of the importance of following Christ as the priority focus in his life.

In John 21 we read that Jesus had some personal dialogue with Simon Peter. Jesus asked Peter three times about his love for Jesus. Jesus also instructed Peter to “feed My lambs”, “tend My sheep”, and “feed My Sheep” referring to his pastoral ministry. Jesus made reference to Peter’s death and then Jesus said “Follow Me.” Peter saw the disciple John and asked Jesus, what about this man?

John 21:22 (ESV)  Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!”

Jesus had just got through saying to Peter, ‘Follow me,’ but Peter was distracted by John’s future, so Jesus told Peter again, ‘Follow me!’ Jesus was emphasizing, ‘Follow me.’

Christ followers, we must prioritize our lives around following Jesus Christ as our Savior and the Lord of our lives, not relegating Him to the backseat or the trunk of our lives but instead submitting to His leadership in our lives and lifting Him up as #1 24/7.

It’s interesting what Jesus said right after He rebuked Peter for rebuking Jesus about the prediction of His death and resurrection. Matthew 16:24 (ESV)  Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Following Jesus is not about signing a card at church, walking up to the altar, gaining a ticket into heaven, getting a new label for yourself, or making sure you do something religious to impress someone.

Following Jesus is about giving all of your life over to the Master of all Masters, the King of Kings, Lord of Lords. You no longer live for yourself or anyone or anything else but Jesus Christ. You want to honor Him and glorify the Lord with your life, moment to moment. Taking up your cross, Luke 9:23 adds ‘daily’, is about your continual committed devotion to Christ and His way of life.

I hope and pray that you are a true follower of Christ and that you will acknowledge and live out this important Bible truth along with me, that we keep our eyes of faith focused on Jesus as our personal Savior and the Lord of our lives 24/7.

Hebrews 12:1-2 (ESV) Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
² looking to Jesus (NLT We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus), the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

This Greek word translated “looking” here in verse 2 is in present active participle form describing an action currently taking place repeatedly. We will get distracted and tempted away from the priority of focusing on Jesus, so we have to fight it, be intentional about it, and cry out to God and others to help us keep our daily living faith focused on following Jesus Christ as He has called us to follow Him. We are to view life constantly through the lens of being a Christ follower. Don’t compartmentalize this. Don’t cast this aside, trying to turn it off or put it on the back burner.

Let’s do these things: Cultivate spiritual intimacy with Christ consistently and regularly. Be passionate about Jesus Christ and what He is passionate about. Prioritize our lives around our relationship with Christ. Talk to Him regularly. Study about Him and His Word applying it to our lives. Tell others about Christ, His Gospel, and our relationship with Him. Let Christ lead us in our decision making. Acknowledge constantly that He is always with you and I and He wants us to know Him better and better and become more and more like Him in character, conviction, conduct, and mission.

I know you are busy with life, maybe with work, academics, relationships, and fun activities but don’t take your eyes of faith off of Jesus Christ. Let’s keep Jesus the priority love of our lives. Let’s keep our eyes of faith focused on Jesus Christ. May God help us be the Christ followers He calls us to be.

What suggestions do you have for how Christ-followers can help keep their eyes of faith focused on Christ?

Mike