Losing sight of the goal

If someone were to ask you what your goal in life is, what would you say? I think most of us would reply our goal is to know and serve Christ.

But if someone were to look at our lives, what would they conclude our goals are? Our real goals come out in how we live. And it’s all too easy to lose sight of what really matters and to simply be consumed by “life.”

I recently read a historical fiction book about a young lady who came to know the Lord in the middle of persecution. Her courage and joy when faced with prison and death–and her single desire to share the Lord with everyone she met–convicted me. I wanted to live that way too!

Yet as the week progressed and “life” set in, I found myself getting lost amid the things I was doing. God brought Hebrews 12:1-3 (KJV) to my mind:

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, 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 is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.”

Looking unto Jesus…I hadn’t been doing that. I’d been looking at myself and what I needed to do. I’d been waking up in the morning thinking of what needed accomplished rather than excited to see what the Lord would unfold. I’d been worrying about deadlines rather than trusting the Lord with all the details.

Next time you find yourself just going through life, stop and ask yourself what race you’re running. Have other goals, even good ones, blocked your eyes from Christ? Are you keeping in His Word and taking all your worries and cares to Him in prayer, acknowledging that He has them in His hands?

Don’t let anything keep you from knowing and seeing Christ!

– christian perspective