While I was driving to Gainesville this morning, I could not help but notice the intensity of driving towards the east in the early morning. The brightness of the sun could nearly block out everything if one is not careful. As I continued to adjust shades and positions to gain a clearer picture of the road ahead, the thought came to me how much the sun blocks out everything around me. I then realized that when we put our face toward the Son of God, everything around us is blocked out. Isn't that what the Lord wants us to do?

Too often, we are not going towards the Lord but in our own way. We have chosen to walk in life our way. The paths we choose are everywhere but where the Lord is. Our happiness comes from the ease of doing what we want to do. When we drive in the opposite direction of the sun, we can see everything. So it is when we direct our lives away from God. We see the world and nothing else. The Lord just becomes a backdrop to our lives.

John, the apostle, warned - "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever" (1 John 2:15-17). The problem is that we are not looking to Jesus in our lives but we are looking at the world. When we look at the world, we have to turn our backs on the will of God.

Giving our lives totally to the Lord will block out the things of this world. We are 'in the world' but we should not be 'of the world.' Paul said that we are to "be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world" (Colossians 2:20). To the church at Corinth he writes, "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God" (1 Corinthians 2:12).

Following Christ will blot out the world so that we only see Him. Our allegiance is solely to the Lord and there will be no room for the things of this world. The focus of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane was only upon the will of His Father. "He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done" (Matthew 26:42). The will of the Father was the only thing that Jesus could see and He followed the will of God. As we bear our cross (Luke 14:27) we must keep our eyes of the Lord. As the brightness of the glory of the Lord shines brighter in our lives, the less we will see the world about us and the more we will see the will of the Father.

It is not easy to drive towards the sun. It is not an easy task to give our lives totally to Christ. There is a desire to hang on to the world and try to serve the Lord too. "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon" (Matthew 6:24). Our task is to trust in the Lord and mold our lives to live for Jesus. "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God" (Romans 12:1-2). When we do this, nothing in the world will matter nor will the world matter to our lives. We serve Jesus and Him crucified.

What direction is your life going? Come to the Lord and let Him guide your life. It will make everything in the world disappear. The brightness of His glory will shine in your hearts.

By Kent Heaton

Return to the General Articles page