Taking every thought captive for obedience to Christ (2 Corinthians 10.5)

Vision
The Vision of God
Exodus 20.4, 5, the second commandment, is relevant today in ways we perhaps have not considered. Here the Lord proscribes the making of idols and of all worship or service of anything other than Himself: “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them…”

We must learn to seek, follow, love, fear, and obey the unseen God, and not rest our hopes on any created things.

Every worldview focuses on unseen things – hoped-for realities which do not presently exist, at least, not to the extent we fully desire them, and for the securing of which we invest all our attention and bend all our exertions.

This vision of unseen things is a construct of the imagination, a likeness of some desired condition or set of circumstances which resonates nicely with one’s heart, mind, and conscience. Such a vision of unseen things can come from one of two sources. Either it will be revealed to us by the Lord, speaking in His Word; or we will assemble a vision to our liking from our experience in the world and our sense of need.

To the extent that our vision of unseen things is populated with created things – possessions and conditions – it will be a pantheon of idols.

For what we envision, what commands our imagination and guides our exertions, is what we desire, and what we desire, we love. What we love, we submit to and obey, in the hope that we might thereby possess the thing we desire, or be possessed by it.

Thus, we place ourselves in voluntary bondage to a likeness of our own creation – either a vision revealed to us by God, or a fabrication of our finite and fallible imagination. This image will direct our steps each day, establishing our priorities, informing our decisions and choices, and charting the path we will follow in life.

Those who profess faith in Christ can be deceived into embracing an inappropriate vision of the life of faith. Whenever we focus on the benefits of knowing the Lord – forgiveness, salvation, eternal life, and the like – rather than on the Lord Himself, we are in danger of making the gifts of God into idols, and of looking to and hoping in the Lord, not for Who He is in Himself, but only for what He can do for us.

Thus, rather than be the servants of the Lord we profess to be, we seek to make the Lord our servant, for whatever we have determined to be our preferred objectives in life.

This is why it is so important that we discipline ourselves to know the Lord (Ps. 46.10), to fear and love Him, seeking Him in His Word and prayer daily, and yielding ourselves and all our time, talents, and treasure to Him, for His use, according to His pleasure, and in His power.

The likeness that fills our imagination and rules our lives must be the pure gold of the exalted Christ, and not merely the good gifts He daily and abundantly supplies. We must say with the apostle Paul, “For me to live is Christ” (Phil. 1.21), and run our race daily with our eyes fixed on Him, exalted in glory (Heb. 12.1, 2). Jesus must be our vision, filling our minds with wonder and curiosity, our hearts with love and joy, and our consciences with resolution to seek Him exclusively and entirely.

To desire and strive for anything other than the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus is to settle for something less than that, something which, because it is not Jesus, must ultimately disappoint and possibly destroy us.

The Lord Jesus will surely frustrate our hopes if we place them anywhere but in Him. And He will certainly discipline us until we set aside every false hope, shatter every vain imagination, take up our cross daily, and follow Him.

Let us learn to live the spiritual which pleads:

In the morning, when I rise;
In the morning, when I rise:
In the morning, when I rise,
Give me Jesus!
Give me Jesus!
Give me Jesus!
You can have all this world:
Give me Jesus!

For reflection
1.  Close your eyes for five minutes, and focus, with the eye of your heart, on what you desire most in life, what you long for, hope to know, and earnestly desire to possess. Where does Jesus fit into this vision?

2.  Meditate on Ephesians 1.15-23. How can you begin to train the eye of your heart to see Jesus more clearly, consistently, and completely?

3.  Meditate on John 5.39. As you read and meditate on Scripture, do you see Jesus everywhere in it? How can you learn to see Him there, in His Word, more consistently?

Next steps: Review your answers to the questions above. Talk with a Christian friend about these questions. How can you help and encourage one another to “see Jesus” more consistently?

T. M. Moore

Your vision of Jesus will only become clearer and more compelling to the extent you actually work to fill your imagination with Him. Download the free PDF, Glorious Vision: 28 Days in the Throne Room of the Lord, and begin working to replace the idols of your mind with the one, true God. Follow that exercise by another month of meditations; order the book, Be Thou My Vision, from our online store (click here).

We depend on the Lord for the needs of The Fellowship of Ailbe. This means we come to Him daily, asking for His help in giving us wisdom to know His will, strength and skill to do it, and the resources we require for each day. As for this last, we understand that God intends to support our ministry from within the ranks of those who are served by it (Ps. 20.1-3; Rom. 15.26, 27; Gal. 6.6).

If this ministry is important to you, we ask you please prayerfully to consider becoming a supporter of The Fellowship of Ailbe. It’s easy to give to The Fellowship of Ailbe, and all gifts are, of course, tax-deductible. You can click here to donate online through credit card or PayPal, or send your gift to The Fellowship of Ailbe, 19 Tyler Dr., Essex Junction, VT 05452.