Struggling? Keep Your Eyes Fixed on Jesus
Jesus is the author and perfecter of our faith. Our faith and salvation originated with him, and he will see us through to the end. Even when we are going through difficult times we can look to Jesus, “fixing our eyes” on him because he knows what we feel and are experiencing because he went though it himself when he walked this earth. He endured much worse things than we are, he suffered on the cross, one of the cruelest, most horrific inventions humankind has ever devised. And in doing so, he was honored, raised from the dead, and seated at the right hand of God the Father. As we look to him we are reminded and encouraged that he didn’t give up, he endured all of that for our sake, because of his love for us. Likewise, the “great cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 11) who have gone before us, demonstrate for us what faithfulness in suffering looks like (even when they did not receive God’s promises in their own lifetime). And therefore we should “not grow weary and lose heart” either. Whatever we are experiencing is only temporary. One day, God will raise us up like Jesus, and we will be with him forever, and our present sufferings in light of eternity will seem inconsequential. While we don’t want to downplay our suffering, we do need to see it in the proper light.