Hebrews 3:1 Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess.

The writer of Hebrews was certainly Christ-centered. 12:2 is the more famous verse to say what he says here. (I personally think the writer was Apollos, but that is largely irrelevant.) The book as a whole is a commentary on how Jesus fulfilled the Mosaic Law as our Great High Priest, as he mentions here. The advice to fix our thoughts on Him is good for every person in every age. Christ is timeless, and the truth about Him never goes out of date. It is through Him that we have the “heavenly calling” mentioned here, and only through Him that we are truly holy. That said, in Him we are indeed holy, whatever the devil, or even our own slip-ups, say about us. As Paul said, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) The biggest battleground is in our minds and hearts, so the more we think about Jesus, the easier it is to be yielded to the work of His Spirit in us, transforming us to be like Him.

The Bible is so marvelously connected! My sermons often use too many Scriptures, because it’s all just so interrelated. I am very familiar with the Bible, but I am not immune to distraction and temptation. I would do well to think more about Jesus! When I am meditating on all that He has done for me, the wiles of the devil will have no power over me. I am reminded of a very perceptive cartoon I saw several years ago, from the series, Rose is Rose. A little boy is one of the main characters, and he can see his guardian angel. In the episode I’m thinking of, the angel was talking about the huge amount of things he had to get done in a previous 24 hour period, and in the climactic frame he says, “So I had to pray for 23 hours, and then got it all done.” That’s the way it is. If I am properly focused on Jesus, everything in my life will fall into place, but if not, there will be all sorts of misalignments. Going back to the cartoon, just because I’m praying doesn’t mean I’m not doing other things at the same time. I can and often do pray in the process of doing other things. That’s a major reason I’m thankful for the gift of Tongues. However, my will is always involved; I’ve got to choose to pray. That said, if I do choose to focus on Jesus, which is essentially what prayer is, then He will be totally faithful.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for yesterday and all it held. Thank You for the new tooth. It was shocking on Wednes­day to have a tooth essentially crumble in my mouth, and almost more shocking to have the dentist create a new tooth and get it firmly attached to the original root. I’m grateful for such technology, and I know it comes from You. Help me indeed stay focused on You in every area today, as I do the sermon notes and take care of other things this morning and go to Takeo this afternoon, and then have a Zoom meeting this evening. I pray that in everything I would be Your agent, doing Your will on Your schedule for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!