HOPE! - Pure Focus

Christ calls us to focus our attention on him and to live in the fullness of his purity. By his grace we may then see what he sees as we allow him to burn away all things within us that are anti-Christ. And as he purifies us, we become aware of more than ourselves and we come alongside others and help them in their suffering.

We can see the call to be focused and to be pure in heart demonstrated in the life of Jesus in that he called his disciples to absolute loyalty to him. His disciples were committed to following Jesus wherever he went, even to the grave, though they often fell short of their desire to follow him into all things.

Jesus showed in his own life that he was consecrated to the will of the Father. He often says in the gospels that he has come to do his Father’s will. He even calls Peter “Satan” at one point because Peter is trying to convince him that God’s will for his life is something other than what God has made clear to him. Christ sets an example of a life that is both a focused upon God and pure in heart to his own followers. Just as he submits to the Father, so they must submit to him as he does the will of the Father. 

The call of Jesus to entire consecration is an extraordinary one. He says, “If anyone would come after me he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” He also says that “whoever wants to save his life must lose it.” Jesus goes on to say that those who have a divided will cannot serve him. They must be completely devoted. He says “A man cannot serve two masters. Either he will love the one and hate the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other.” 

Jesus even says that those who would follow him must give up everything for the sake of the kingdom. There were many followers who came to Jesus to ask what they must do to be his disciple, and Jesus always called them to surrender their lives completely.

The rich young man had to surrender all of his wealth. Another disciple was told that he must leave his father’s funeral planning to someone else. Another was told that he would have to be homeless with no place to rest his head if he truly wanted to be a disciple of Jesus, which meant to be like Jesus. Christ even said that being consecrated to him as his disciple would cause the members of one’s own household to become his enemies. All of this shows the weight of consecration – living a sin-free life through the power of the Holy Spirit can lead to pain and to suffering… but it’s worth it.

Jesus shows that consecration to God is more important than wealth, than having a home, and even more important than your own family. These were “hard words” for most of Jesus’ followers.