Upper Loft Meditation - Hebrews 12:2

“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” - Hebrews 12:2

What a tremendous contrast, joy verses shame.

Jesus sees the fulfillment of the promise of God, the joy of eternal communion with the Father. The humiliation and suffering of the cross was but for a moment in comparison with the fellowship with the Father forever. This should be our perspective, because we have the same promise. This is the very request of Jesus. “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.” - John 17:24

“The greatest act of love that has ever been performed was sustained by the joy of hope.” (Piper) Because of the joy set before us, you can endure all the suffering the world can throw at you. You are loved by the Father and by Jesus.

The Holy Spirit manifests the Father’s love upon you in many and various ways. One way is to strengthen you with the hope that is yours in Christ Jesus. The pain and suffering may still be there, but underneath it all the joy and hope of the Father’s love remains.

“I’m absolutely convinced that nothing - nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable - absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.” - (Romans 8:39 - MSG)

This is why we are to fix our eyes on Jesus.

Upper Loft Meditation - Hebrews 12

“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” - Hebrews 12:2

“Look unto Jesus” - The meaning behind the word is to look away from something else and turn and look at Jesus steadfastly without distraction.  It is a compound word made of two words, “to separate” and “to see” all brought together as one word.  There are two steps here in fixing our eyes.

Step 1 - Turn away from that which has your attention. This requires a conscious effort of heart and mind. This is not a passing glance. It is a determined focus. No Olympic runner runs the race as if he were a sightseer.

Step 2 - Look at Jesus. We are to have eyes for no one, no other thing, other than Jesus. Peter experienced this in Matthew 14. We may encounter storms in life because of our disobedience, but here Peter is obeying Jesus’ command to walk on the water. He is living a miracle, until he takes his eyes off of Jesus.

“We look to Jesus by faith when we trust His word. We need to beware of the distracting storms (which are a certainty in our life in this fallen world)! Instead we need to keep our eyes continually focused on the One who controls the ‘waves’ and is able to calm the storm!” (Gebelein)

This is not easy. It requires training. We love to be distracted. This will require changing our ways.

Lord, help me to look to you. You are the lover of my soul, my all in all. There is no other