Articles
TURN YOUR EYES UPON JESUS
Concerns for security and caution while dealing with the coronavirus pandemic occupies a
lot of our thoughts these days. But those concerns are not really the only ones we are dealing
with, are they? We also struggle with our own personal challenges of health, finance, and
concern for our families. I am not suggesting we throw caution to the wind, but it seems to me
that with all the discussion of these concerns, I hear less and less about our trust in the Lord. I
know that the Lord has blessed us with the abilities to reason, but is it also possible that in the
“heat of battle” it would benefit us to lean more on the Lord?
There is a song I learned many years ago while at camp in Maine. I don’t think I really
understood the words back then, but I have found myself singing these words quite often as I
contemplate this troubled world.
Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
in the light of His glory and grace.
While Jesus prepares His apostles for His imminent departure, He promises that they will
not be left alone. He will send them a Helper that will take His place. But He also shares these
words which need to be very much in the forefront of our lives each day. “Peace I leave with
you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be
troubled, nor let it be fearful” (John 14:27). It is a peace the world can’t possibly understand,
because they don’t know the Lord and have not put their trust and faith in Him.
This may be one of the greatest opportunities we have to show a lost world how trust in the
Lord can change our lives and bring peace even to a troubled world because of the marvelous
hope we have in our resurrected Savior!
Maybe this is why David could write the psalm we are so familiar with, “The Lord is my
shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet
waters. He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my
enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and
lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
forever (Psalm 23). Turn your eyes upon Jesus! ~P. Mowrer
