Where do you look when things get hard? Satan has a hundred schemes he'll throw your way. He'll try to get you to focus on people or things that make you happy. And once you build your security on things of this world, he'll laugh while your boat sinks under the waves. Maybe sin looks tempting when life is dark. You turn to old habits that bring a fleeting happiness, but then it disappears like cotton candy and you find yourself lower than you ever were.
I'll tell you my struggle. I like to be right. So when life is dark, Satan whispers, "You're not right." Then I frantically search my life cause I need so desperately to be sure I'm right. I ask God, "What can I change? How can I be perfect before you?" And doesn't it sort of seem like a righteous thing to do? Oh, but its a pit. A pit of endless cycles of thought and misery. I can't fix myself! Isn't that why Jesus came in the first place? How do I forget that!
But, there's one answer to all of these. Turn your eyes to Christ. Think of Peter walking on the water. Jesus told him he could and he started out so well, but then Matthew 14:30 says, "when he saw the wind, he was afraid." It's pretty interesting to me that it says he saw the wind. The wind isn't normally something you can really set your eyes on, but I think the main point is that he wasn't looking at Jesus.
We are fighting a battle, and the victory is only won in keeping your eyes on Christ. "Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith," says Hebrews 12:2. He saved me when there was no hope in myself. Why would He make me fix myself now? He's the beginning and the ending, and (thank you Jesus!)
"To you I lift up my eyes, O you who are enthroned in the heavens!" -Psalm 123:1
-Please continue to pray for us to have courage and endurance. Pray we would look to Christ and abide in the Spirit.
-Pray that God would send forth His righteousness and truth in Nantou, Taiwan.
