MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY

MONDAY

Think and Meditate

• What are some things that currently distract your gaze from Jesus?

Listen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2tKVqZZiI4&list=RDF2tKVqZZiI4&start_radio=1

Read Lyrics

Verse 1

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

Verse 2

Turn your eyes to the hillside

Where justice and mercy embrace

There the Son of God gave His life for us

And our measureless debt was erased

Chorus

Jesus to You we lift our eyes

Jesus our glory and our prize

We adore You behold You our Savior ever true

Oh Jesus we turn our eyes to You

Verse 3

Turn your eyes to the morning

And see Christ the lion awake

What a glorious dawn fear of death is gone

For we carry His life in our veins

Verse 4

Turn your eyes to the heavens

Our King will return for His own

Every knee will bow every tongue will shout

All glory to Jesus alone

Read the Word (Hebrews 12:1-3)

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted^[1]

PRAY

• Ask the Lord to reveal any idols or distractions in your life.
• Pray for strength to stay spiritually focused and attentive to Jesus.
• Thank God for the endurance He provides through His Son.

TUESDAY

Think and Meditate

• How has seeing the glory of Christ transformed your life?

Listen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAURz3ZZJ9U&list=RDjAURz3ZZJ9U&start_radio=1

Read the Word (2 Corinthians 3:16-18)

16 But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. ^[2]

Seek to Understand

But what kind of freedom does Paul have in mind? Freedom from what? The widespread idea that Paul has in mind freedom from the law should be dismissed. The immediate context should guide the decision, not an importing of theological issues from Paul’s other letters into 2 Corinthians.459 In the context freedom has to do with freedom from the veil that only comes when one turns to the Lord (3:16, 18). Because Israel did not have the Spirit to make their hearts receptive to God’s law, they were kept from beholding God’s glory. Using metonymy, Paul employs the term “the veil” to represent the people’s hardheartedness that thwarted their ability to experience God’s glory to its fullest extent. If the veil represents the stiffnecked sinfulness of Israel, it follows as a corollary that when that veil is removed, freedom from the law of sin and death results.

In the age of the Spirit, there is no need for veils, which is what marks the contrast between Paul and Moses. Paul does not veil himself or his gospel but makes things evident and spreads the knowledge of God (2:14; 4:6) for all to see (3:2). The uncovered face of Paul that looks up to God also turns uncovered to others. “Freedom” parallels the boldness in 3:12. Freedom is not freedom from some constraint. Paul has in mind “freedom of speech, boldness, openness, and honesty in proclaiming and defending the gospel.^[3]

Pray

• Pray for a renewed vision of Christ’s beauty and grace.
• Ask for the Spirit to continue transforming you as you behold Him.
• Worship God for His glory that never fades and His grace that never ends.

WEDNESDAY

Think and Meditate

• How does lifting your eyes to Jesus shift your emotional or spiritual state?

Listen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHHPbBfinXs&list=RDUHHPbBfinXs&start_radio=1

Read the Word (Psalm 121)

A Song of Ascents.

        1         I lift up my eyes to the hills.

From where does my help come?

        2         My help comes from the Lord,

who made heaven and earth.

        3         He will not let your foot be moved;

he who keeps you will not slumber.

        4         Behold, he who keeps Israel

will neither slumber nor sleep.

        5         The Lord is your keeper;

the Lord is your shade on your right hand.

        6         The sun shall not strike you by day,

nor the moon by night.

        7         The Lord will keep you from all evil;

he will keep your life.

        8         The Lord will keep

your going out and your coming in

from this time forth and forevermore. ^[4]

Seek to Understand

A Timid Pilgrim’s Question: Where Is My Help? (121:1–2)

As the pilgrim considers his journey, he looks at the mountains and wonders about hope. The “mountains” are enigmatic. Do they represent refuge, danger, and/or anticipation of arrival in Jerusalem? Regarding refuge, the mountains surrounding Jerusalem conveyed a peaceful image of the Lord’s protection of Israel (125:2; cf. Goldingay, Psalms, 456). The mountains may have also stirred up a sense of peace since the Lord made the mountains. Others see the pilgrim as looking with anticipation at arriving in Jerusalem, which is set among the mountains. But I think it’s best to read the hills conveying the danger that exists along the journey. While he may have indeed had a mixture of emotions in his heart, I think his primary thought was that the hills were part of the problem.

The hills sheltered bandits. And, significantly, they were home to pagan gods who “lived” among the high places (cf. Jer 3:23). Later in the psalm the pilgrim highlights the Lord’s character, seemingly alluding to the Lord’s transcendence and supremacy over pagan gods. Unlike the pagan gods, the Lord doesn’t sleep or take a vacation (vv. 3–8; cf. 1 Kgs 18:27). The Lord is always watching over his people. The references to the moon and sun may also be allusions to the gods.

The hazards of travel today may look different. We might imagine walking through a rough part of a major city at night or, if you’re from the hills, a particular back road that one shouldn’t enter at night. We might imagine our missionary friends praying Psalm 121 in regions where there are hostile terrorists. Other hazards of life include madmen with guns, diseases, weather-related disasters, and automobile dangers. Like this pilgrim, we need protection from the threats of this life.

This much our pilgrim friend knows: his help will come from the “Maker of heaven and earth” (v. 2; cf. 115:15; 134:3). One can hear this verse in the opening line of the Apostles’ Creed, which Christians have recited for hundreds of years. God is Creator and therefore reigns over all things, including pagan deities. The pilgrim’s help won’t come from Baal, Asherah, or the moon priestess.

Yet the pilgrim needs something more. He needs to know of the personal, intimate nature of the covenant-keeping God of the Bible. He needs to know God not just as Creator but as Companion and Guardian. He needs to know what precedes the affirmation of God as Creator in the Apostles’ Creed: “We believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth” (emphasis added). That’s what everyone needs. They need a relationship with God, which of course comes through Jesus.^[5]

Pray

• Ask the Holy Spirit to retrain your instincts to turn to Jesus first.
• Pray that your worship would become a response of lifting your eyes to Him.
• Give thanks for Jesus as your ever-present help and refuge.

Thursday

Think and Meditate

• What changes when you live each day in light of His coming?

Listen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2tKVqZZiI4&list=RDF2tKVqZZiI4&start_radio=1

Read the Word (Revelation 21:1-7)

21 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6 And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. 7 The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son^[6]

Seek to Understand

Throughout my life I have often heard statements to this effect: “He is so heavenly minded that he is no earthly good.” There is only one thing wrong with that statement: It is not true! The fact is those who are the most heavenly minded are the most earthly good. That is why Colossians 3:1–2 teaches us, “So if you have been raised with the Messiah, seek what is above, where the Messiah is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on what is above, not on what is on the earth.” C. S. Lewis beautifully echoes the truth of Scripture when he writes,

A continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do. It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth “thrown in:” aim at earth and you will get neither. (Mere Christianity, 134)^[7]

Pray

• Pray for increased longing and watchfulness for Christ’s return.
• Intercede for those who have not yet turned their eyes to Jesus.
• Praise God for the future He has secured for you.

Friday

Think and Meditate

• What competes with Jesus as the “prize” in your life?

Listen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHHPbBfinXs&list=RDUHHPbBfinXs&start_radio=1

Read the Word (Philippians 3:7-14)

7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.^[8]

Seek to Understand

The content of Paul’s goal is given. Repeating the word “press on” of v. 12, Paul employed athletic imagery to make his point. Since the Greek athletic games captured the imagination of all of the peninsula, Macedonia included, it spoke vividly to the readers.47 The manner of attainment is explained by two participles. First, “forgetting what is behind” comprehensively expresses Paul’s future orientation. What was done was done! Both the nostalgia of the former life and the “good ole days” of his Christian life would paralyze him in terms of what God wanted in the future. Every day was a new adventure. Second, he was “straining toward what is ahead.” This word continues the athletic metaphor. It is particularly graphic, bringing to mind the straining muscles, clear focus, and complete dedication of the runner in his race to the prize. Both mental and physical discipline were necessary.

The goal is the heavenward call of Jesus Christ. The text is ambiguous here. The “goal” (“mark,” KJV; skopos) is the “goal marker” in English. It was the focus of the eye when a runner ran the race. For Paul, it was probably the model provided in Christ who demonstrated both obedience unto death and the resurrection. The prize is explained as the heavenward call (anō). The NIV translates it, “for which God has called me heavenward,” correctly seeing that the word anō refers to heaven as opposed to earth. The translation seems to make the call at the beginning of the race, however, rather than the end. That corresponds to Paul’s life if the call is understood as at the time of conversion, but there is no hint of that here. It seems best to take it as the call associated with the resurrection. At that day there will be a call to heaven. Further, in 3:21, Paul mentioned the resurrection and the transformation that will occur then. He lived for the day when the heavenward call would come, like a victory in a race. Rather than slack off, as some were prone to do, the thought of it motivated him to further purity and service. He would get to know every dimension of Christ (reign and suffering), through every means. The joy of the process kept him going, but he realized that the ultimate joy was the completion of God’s work in his life.^[9]

Pray

• Surrender anything you treasure more than Jesus.
• Pray to grow in the joy of knowing Christ intimately.
• Rejoice that He is both the goal and reward of your journey.

Benediction

“O Jesus, Light of the World, our eyes are on You. In every storm, in every joy, through every sorrow, and in every triumph, we turn to You. You are our glory, our grace, our ever-present help, and our coming King. Help us to behold You with undivided hearts, to worship You with lifted eyes, and to long for Your return with eager hope. Transform us, sustain us, and satisfy us with Yourself—our greatest prize. Amen.”