Keep Your Eyes On Jesus

“Two boys were playing in the snow one day, when one said to the other, “Let’s see who can make the straightest path in the snow.” His companion readily accepted the proposition, and they started. One boy fixed his eyes on a tree, and walked along without taking his eyes off the object selected. The other boy set his eyes on the tree also, and, when he had gone a short distance, he turned, and looked back to see how true his course was. He went a little distance farther, and again turned to look over his steps. When they arrived at their stopping place, each halted and looked back. One path was true as an arrow, while the other ran in a zigzag course. “How did you get your path so true?” asked the boy who had made the crooked steps. “Why,” said the other boy, “I just set my eyes on the tree, and kept them there until I got to the end; while you stopped and looked back and wandered out of your course.””*

This was a lesson I learned as a youngster as I was being taught to plant and cultivate straight rows of corn. I was told to keep looking forward, concentrating on guiding the tractor where it was supposed to go. If you did so, the planter or cultivator you were pulling had to follow correctly. But the temptation was to look back to see how you were doing. Nearly always, when I did so, the tractor would wander off course and the implement would follow, damaging crops in the process.

Focusing on Jesus is vital to our spiritual lives. That’s why Paul talked about “...forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead” (Philippians 3:13). The Hebrew writer encourages us to be “...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of faith…” (Hebrews 12:2). Our world is full of distractions that can lure us away from what is truly important. Keep your eyes on Jesus!

God loves you!

Mike

*Heartwarming Bible Illustrations, Richard Steele; quoted by ministry127.com