Thoughts on Hebrews - Day 7

                                                     Hebrews 3:1-6

Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest. ² He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house. ³ Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. ⁴ For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. ⁵ “Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house,” bearing witness to what would be spoken by God in the future. ⁶ But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory.


         What do you fix your thoughts on? Is it everything in this life or the future life? When is the last time you thought about Jesus or Heaven? It is not surprising that we miss opportunities to share the gospel and miss divine opportunities due to the fact that we weren't thinking about Heaven but rather our job, our schedule, our children, our debts, our broken things we need to get fixed, etc. If we had been thinking about eternal things and this person popped into our space, maybe the opportunity would have been seized and not missed. This is how the greek word from which "fix your thoughts on" is used in approximately all 10 times it appears in the New Testament. It basically means to take your eyes off something, usually yourself, and turn them towards and deeply contemplate on another object.

       Practically speaking, how do we do this because this does seem to be the key to living a life pleasing to God? First of all, the easiest way, the way with no memos etc., is to fall in love with Jesus. I have two children now who are dating and I wouldn't even begin to know if they are in love, but from what I have seen, they don't have to be reminded to contemplate and think deeply about the people they are seeing. In the same way, if Jesus becomes the love of our soul, our minds will automatically go to Him all day long. How we fall in love with Jesus is beyond the scope of this blog but is certainly a lifelong pursuit to be chased after with all we have. Secondly, a morning quiet time will give you words from God to meditate on throughout the day. For example, I've been writing this blog for a week now because I have been contemplating on what it means to "fix my thoughts on Jesus" and how that practically happens for me. Third, place reminders around you that you will see. You could put sticky notes that say "Heb. 3:1" or "FYT's" or write it on your hand, wear a bracelet or band, anything to draw your attention back to Jesus throughout the day. You could set your phone to beep every hour. Back in the day they had watches that beeped every hour and although it annoyed everyone in hearing distance it was a practical tool to remind you to fix your thoughts throughout the day. Lastly, tell friends to keep you accountable and text you throughout the day and vice versa.

       There is a famous book called Practicing His Presence that delves deep into this whole topic so if you want to contemplate more on this vital aspect of the Christian life, I recommend you pick one up or Kindle it.