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Fix Your Eyes On Jesus (replay)

Fix Your Eyes On Jesus Ephesians 2:8-9 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” This verse is an important one.  It is something I think we forget more than we remember.  At least I know I forget this often.  I do know I am saved because Jesus died on a cross for my sins.  I know I am not saved because of my own actions.  I know there are no works that I could do to save myself because Jesus already paid the ultimate sacrifice.  I know all of this, and yet sometimes I still try to do it all myself.  Sometimes I try to fix things myself.  Instead of immediately turning to the Lord when things get tough, I try to fix them myself.  I do all that is humanly possible to do, and then when that doesn’t work, I turn to the Lord.  Do you know why it doesn’t work when we try to do things on our own?  Because we were trying to do it on our own.  We can’t do anything on our own, and why would we want to when we have a heavenly Father who wants to do it with us?   This morning’s devotional was about this same message. The daily devotional I am reading this year is called “Jesus Calling” by Sarah Young.  I am really enjoying this one because the devotionals are not super long, and they are written as if they are a direct message to you from Jesus.  It’s great to get a personal message from Jesus each morning.  I’m going to read you the message from this morning because I think it illustrates this verse well.   "I want you to experience the riches of your salvation: the joy of being loved constantly and perfectly. You make a practice of judging yourself based on how you look, behave, or feel. If you like what you see in the mirror, you feel a bit more worthy of my love. When things are going smoothly, and your performance seems adequate, you find it easier to believe you are my beloved child. When you feel discouraged, you tend to look inward so you can correct whatever is wrong.  Instead of trying to “fix” yourself, fix your gaze on me, the lover of your soul. Rather than using your energy to judge yourself, redirect it to praising Me.  Remember that I see you clothed in My righteousness, radiant in My perfect Love.” This gives some great examples, I think we can all relate to.  It is easier for us to feel loved when we like what we see in the mirror or when we feel we are doing a good job.  It is easier to think we are God’s beloved children when we are attending church, showing up for our prayer time, and helping others.  However, what about when we aren’t? What about when we are snoozing through prayer time and missing church on Sunday?  What about when we are not being kind and loving, but we are being irritable and grumpy?  Do we still know we are God’s beloved child?  Do we still believe we are loved?  Or, do we struggle to believe it because we haven’t earned his love or earned our spot as His beloved child?   I can’t answer that for you, but for me, I know I struggle with feeling like I have to earn it.  The thing that bugs me the most is that I don’t even know I am doing it.  If you ask me if I have to earn God’s love, I would say, “No.”  I truly know I am loved no matter what.  However, if you look at my actions, they say something else.  Why is that?  It is so frustrating when you know something on one level and yet your actions reveal that you might not know or accept it on all levels.  This, I am sure, is a trick from the enemy.  As mentioned in the letter from Wormwood in the Tuesday episode, the enemy wants to keep our brains in a fog.  He wants to keep us from thinking clearly and asking too many questions.  We need to resist this fog.  We need to try to live as intentionally as we can.  We can so easily go through our day on autopilot.  We do the things we did yesterday; every day is similar, and we aren’t even really thinking about what we are doing.  We are just doing what we always do.  However, what if what we always do isn’t the best for us?  What if we could do better if we lived more intentionally?   In this message from the daily devotional, Jesus is calling us back to Him.  He is calling us to stop trying fix ourselves and instead fix our eyes on Him. Hebrews 3:1 says, "Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest.”  We need to stop turning our gaze inward and fix our gaze on Jesus.  Look towards Him and then never take your eyes off Him!  I love where it says in the devotional, “Rather than using your energy to judge yourself, redirect it to praising Me.”  That is such a great piece of advice.  Judging ourselves does take so much energy.  Praising God will uplift your spirits, also.  I love to praise God; I always feel so loved afterwards.   Psalm 34:5 says, “Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.”  When we are looking to Go...