ODJ: Seeing like Jesus

June 30, 2017 

READ: Hebrews 12:1-29 

We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith (v.2).

During his 100 years of life, renowned photographer Stanley Troutman has witnessed some profound events. In 1945, as a US Navy photographer, Troutman was deployed to Germany and Japan where he captured on film some of the most poignant images of World War II. After the war, as the official sports photographer for a large university, this believer in Jesus saw and documented amazing athletic feats.

Both experiences caused Stanley Troutman to recognise that in this complex world, the only way to steadily “run with endurance the race God has set before us” is by “keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith” (Hebrews 12:1-2).

Seeing the world through a camera lens can reveal much about people’s hearts, their ambitions and the times we live in. When we focus on Jesus and God’s wisdom found in Scripture, however, we can also see a Saviour who calls us to “take a new grip” with our tired hands and to find strength for our “weak knees” in Him (v.12).

Jesus meets us in life’s battlefields and arenas—inviting us to look to Him, the only One who “endured the cross, disregarding its shame” and who embraced hostility from sinful people on our behalf so that we “[wouldn’t] become weary and give up” as we live out His calling for our lives (vv.2-3).

God graciously invites us to cast our eyes on Jesus and encourages us to “mark out a straight path for [our] feet so that those who are weak and lame will not fall but become strong” (v.13). Through Christ, “We are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, [so] let us be thankful and please God by worshipping him with holy fear and awe” (v.28).

Today, may we fix our eyes on Jesus and see all of life through the lens of His love.

—Roxanne Robbins

365-day plan: Matthew 5:31-48