Gaze on His Face

In order to stay spiritually fresh you must keep your eyes fully focused on Jesus.

Our Lord was the most alert and alive person the world has ever seen. Never once do we read that He experienced spiritual staleness or had to confess to being out of touch with heaven. He was always confident, always assured, always in the right place, always doing the right thing at the right time. Even after a period of prolonged fasting in the wilderness when He faced the fiercest of temptations, He turned—not exhausted and limp as a wet rag—but “in the power of the Spirit.” Here was spiritual freshness to the nth degree.

Our text today tells us that one of the ways by which we can become more and more like Christ is to stand with unveiled faces and continually gaze upon Him. It is a breathtaking concept—and so simple. Yet how profound. Look beyond yourself to Another, and thus free yourself from self-preoccupation. Have you noticed how many of the religious cults get their followers to concentrate on the divinity within them? Then what happens? They finish up preoccupied with their own states of mind and emotion. As someone put it: “If I worship the divinity within me, I will probably end up worshiping myself.”

2 Corinthians 3:18 gets our gaze in the right place—on the face of Christ: “We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory.” The attention we give to this is important, for whatever gets our attention gets us. Therefore, when Christ gets our attention, He also gets us. Our gaze must be person-centered, not problem-centered. And that Person must be Jesus Christ.

Further Study

Rm 8:29-39; Jn 1:36; Col 2:2-3

What is God’s plan for us?

What was John’s declaration?