Living With Eyes on Him - Kristina Thom

Last week Jeremy and I had the opportunity to share a bit of our story with a stranger who wanted to know about our experience with foster care & adoption. After visiting and conversing for over two hours, we said our goodbyes and I got in the car to head to work. While I was driving, I noticed that I felt a sense of renewal rather than the usual run down feeling. My routine of wading in the self pity/pride pool was absent and instead my heart was in a posture of “yes Jesus” and was being strengthened. What had changed? In the midst of sharing with this stranger, my “Why” had been placed in the right position. By simply going over our story my eyes were set on Jesus and it greatly impacted my heart.

What’s your real time story? As you live out your story, what is your “Why”? If the answer is Jesus, have you taken up the invitation to deny yourself? To lose your life? If so, are you like me wading in that pity/pride pool? Is your heart like mine and holding the tension and struggle of just wanting comfortable and easy; more time, sleep, money, status, etc? If so, there is help and hope. The paraphrase of Hebrews 12 in The Message translation says:

“Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed-that exhilarating finish in and with God-he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!”

What is your “Why”? You are invited to live out the answer of JESUS. And when Jesus is the answer, go over your story, which is HIS story, again and again and feel the adrenaline shooting into your soul because you are keeping your hearts’ line of sight on Him.

Living with eyes on Him,

Kristina Thom
Musician & Volunteer | Hope City Church