– Colossians 3:1-4 NKJV – “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.”
To “seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God” should be easy for us to do who are raised with Christ. If we say we love Jesus and that we are followers Jesus then we should be seeking Him, seeking His word. When needing help or searching for answers, we should run to Jesus first. Jesus should always be our go-to when we have a need, instead of being a last resort. But sometimes we are not quick to first seek those things which are above.
It can be challenging at times to “set my mind on things above, not on things on the earth” especially when dealing with stress, frustration, anxiety, grief, depression. I know it is a challenge for me sometimes to set my mind on things above. When we face life struggles, again “Jesus should always be our go-to when we have a need, instead of being a last resort.” Jesus should be our focal point, but yet we can easily be distracted, we lose focus, and then instead of looking up, we hang our head down low.
I like to think that I can pinpoint the root cause of my pity parties with excuses like: maybe I am not feeling good, maybe I did not get enough sleep, maybe I should not have eaten that big bowl of ice cream that late, maybe I’m a failure. Forgetting that the real root of it all is when I have taken my eyes off Jesus, when I do not seek what is above, when I lose my focus on Him, when I fail to guard my heart, when I complain instead of pray.
When I think about keeping focus, I like to use the illustration of putting on “spiritual blinders”. Kind of like what horses wear when they are pulling a cart or carriage. Racehorses wear blinders too. The purpose of blinders on a horse is to keep them looking straight ahead of what is in front of them to prevent them from seeing what is on the left and the right. Blinders provide safety because a horse can easily be startled by whats around them, just like us. If you are easily startled by what is going on around you, then put on spiritual blinders, regain your focus, keep moving forward, and keep looking ahead, keep looking towards Jesus. Keep your head up, let Jesus remove the guilt, shame, weight, burden, sin, fear, and pain you carry. Those things that cause our head, our focus, our thoughts to hang low.
My prayer is that we remember to not only “seek those things which are above”, and “set my mind on things above”, but also to make sure to keep it there! To keep our focus and our mind on what is above, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
Hebrews 12:1-2 NKJV – 12 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
