Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you. Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways. Do not turn to the right or the left. Prov 4:25-27; Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. Heb. 12:2
Lord Jesus, we want to live gazed-locked on you in 2021. And the best (and only) way for that to happen is to live heart-filled with your beauty, magnificence, and love.
We have special moments, but we want unbroken months in which our hearts can truly affirm, “Jesus, the very thought of Thee with sweetness fills my breast; But sweeter far Thy face to see, and in Thy presence rest… No other source have we but Thee, Soul-thirst to satisfy. Exhaustless spring! the waters free! All other streams are dry.” (Bernard of Clairvaux – “Jesus the Very Thought of Thee”).
By your Spirit, do this work in our hearts, Lord Jesus. Restore the joy of our salvation, the delight of our first-love, the clarity of our first-sighting of you.
On “the right,” and on “the left” (Prov. 4:27), all kinds of competition vies for our gaze, heart, and trust. Like Samson looking to Delilah for satisfaction, Israel looking to Egypt for protection (Isaiah 31:1), Esau choosing a bowl of soup-in-hand, over an-inheritance-to come (Heb. 12:16)—we too, are temptable and foolish.
But no idol, lover, political party, or ideology died for us, can save us, and satisfy us. Only you have, Lord Jesus; and only you are worthy. So very Amen we pray, in your lovely and loving name.