Six days into this new year. We walked across the line of 2020 to 2021 and announced \u201cTa da and whoo hoo — 2020 is whosh — done AND gone! HAPPY NEW YEAR! All NEW and improved!\u201d But alas \u2013 we\u2019ve already found out that it isn\u2019t really so. Well, the 2020 to 2021 is \u2013 but maybe not our circumstances. The overdue bills, the cranky neighbor, the pain and discomfort (I say that as my body creaked and whined from all this cleaning-out, rigorous routine), the child gone astray, the prayers unanswered (or so we think), the sickness or loss of a loved one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Though we took our circumstances into 2021 with us, it doesn\u2019t mean that they\u2019re going to stay there. And, more importantly, we took ourselves with us into this new year \u2013 and just maybe that\u2019s where old to new is most needed. At least new thinking and believing and pressing into our race that God set before us. \u201cAnd let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by fixing (keeping) our eyes on Jesus \u2026\u201d Hebrews 12:1<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If we took that scripture seriously, it doesn\u2019t matter what year it is. We are secure in Who our Leader is and we\u2019ll carry on because our Lord will not lead us astray. In this scripture, we read about a race set before us by God. We\u2019re encouraged to run that race with endurance, but we\u2019re also told how that is possible: \u201cWe do it by keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus\u201d (Hebrews 12:2).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But there are so many distractions along the way that keep our eyes from being fixed\u201don Him. That\u2019s why, when the concerns and worries come, we must immediately have a mind-jerk reaction. A knee-jerk reaction is referred to as an UN-thinking moment and doing something stupid. But, a mind-jerk reaction is a purpose-driven moment. That \u201cfixing\u201d our eyes on Jesus is a locked and loaded, unwavering, anchored-in, purposeful FIXING. That \u201cfixing\u201d means to turn our eyes away from what the enemy is touting and FIXING our eyes on Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fixing our eyes on Jesus might not always be easy. After all, Jesus may go at a pace that might not agree with our pace. He may slow us when we want to speed up. He may move us when we\u2019d rather stay put. He may stop us for some rest, but we have too much to do to stop. But, truthfully, when we place our trust in our Pace-Setter, Jesus, we will not only finish strong, we will draw a crowd that finishes strong with us!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dear Jesus, I want to run the race marked out for me in 2021 with my eyes fixed on You. Set my pace that it may always coincide with Yours, along with Your purposes for my life. In Jesus\u2019 Name, Amen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLet your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you.\u201d (Proverbs 4:25)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Six days into this new year. We walked across the line of 2020 to 2021 and announced \u201cTa da and whoo hoo — 2020 is whosh — done AND gone! HAPPY NEW YEAR! All NEW and improved!\u201d But alas \u2013 we\u2019ve already found out that it isn\u2019t really so. Well, the 2020 to 2021 is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13698,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19549,19550,15998],"tags":[10604,1210,1769,4330,12223,15236,40,1947,19547,19546,4128,3216,19548,3218,3973,3034,19545],"class_list":["post-13697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fix-eyes","category-new-thinking","category-new-year","tag-all-things-new","tag-blog","tag-christian","tag-distractions","tag-endurance","tag-fix-our-eyes","tag-inspiration","tag-knee-jerk-reaction","tag-mind-jerk-reaction","tag-new-thinking","tag-new-year","tag-pace","tag-purpose-driven","tag-race","tag-run","tag-run-our-race","tag-tada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13697"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13701,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13697\/revisions\/13701"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}