Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus

Fixing our eyes on Jesus can be difficult. If I fret over not being focused, I am distracted and not gazing on Him. On the other hand, if I enter into His Rest by choosing not to wrestle but simply turning my wayward gaze back, then the Spirit moves all to support my choice.

Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus in Prayer

I often gaze at the Lord when praying. It has produced huge fruit in my life. I even sometimes do it while having a conversation with others. I will stop and silently look until I see the Father again. He is the Director of my life and steps. I am just to see where He is going and what He is doing. This gazing gets me back in line with God and His Will. And that is the fruit of fixing our eyes on Jesus.

Wandering Focus

Recently I read one of Martha’s Let devotions where she speaks specifically about this very thing. I think it will bless you.

Pray then in this way: Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.
Matthew 6:9 NASB

Jesus’ prayer begins with the Person, God…and with His preciousness and wonder. This is Jesus—fixing His eyes on God. Just turning to God, considering Him.

“God is Attention without distraction. Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer.”
—Simone Weil

Would that it were that easy. Yet it is! My focus wanders. I’m gone from Him and I don’t even know it. In my mind I go to my day and I imagine getting the chicken from the freezer, making this call, fixing that…I have left Jesus. As one wrote about his weakness to be distracted [ed. Martha’s talking about me here]: “the buzz of the fly, the creak of the door.”

Vital issues and tedious distractions seek us, compel us, capture our minds. No problem. Just look back at Jesus. And keep coming back to see Him.

If you stop for the distraction, you are distracted. If you fret over the interruption, you are interrupted. Be simple. Ignore the interruption and in time, your mind will be subdued to concentrate in stillness. And you will come to “FIX your eyes on Jesus.”

The Answer is Fixing our Gaze on Jesus

While the solution may not be easy, it is simple. It is redirecting our gaze without judgment or condemnation of self. The mind thinks and tends to wander; this is a reality – but it doesn’t have to be a crisis. I have the power to choose to cast my gaze continually back upon Jesus when I notice it has strayed. Distractions of my gaze are mere pebbles in the road but my path is Him. The Lord will guide our every step and as we walk, we’re fixing our eyes on Jesus.

“There is an enormous power in little things to distract our attention from God.”
—Oswald Chambers

“The busier we are, the easier it is to worry. The greater the temptation to worry, the greater the need to be alone with God.”
—Charles Stanley