See Through Jesus

Another practical way to grow in guarding your thoughts is to develop a lifestyle where you intentionally focus on who Jesus is and what he has done no matter what you are feeling and/or experiencing. 

A common obstacle can arise for believers when  their relationship with Jesus is only deeply thought of when someone asks them what they believe in. People can unintentionally incorporate Jesus into their life in order to be certain they are going to heaven, yet they do not let him become their life so that they walk in victory on the earth. Merely having the right answers, instead of a deep personal understanding, can result in a fruitless “belief system” that doesn’t actually bring freedom into every life situation. 

When challenges arise, thinking this way can cause people to more easily focus on their circumstance, rather than on what Jesus has done. We’re not saying there are no issues in life, but we are saying too often people are focusing on the issues, instead of the answer. If you focus on Jesus, the answer, then you can become a shining product of that answer. As you grow in this, you will respond more and more like him and less like someone who doesn’t know him. 

Here are a few examples of how to focus on Jesus through difficult circumstances…

1. When others mistreat you- You can focus more on how the Lord treated you when you were mistreating him. This can empower you to not take personally what they’ve done and instead take personally what he’s done. In addition, this will help you treat them the way he treated you. (Hebrews 12:3, John 13:34)
2. When circumstances aren’t going the way you’d like – You can focus on how Jesus endured hard situations, yet always surrendered his will to the Father’s will and through that experienced the joy and comfort of God. Because he didn’t focus only on the circumstance, but rather turned his will to the Father, he was able to shine and reflect the Father through everything. (John 6:38, Hebrews 12:2)

We encourage you to take these examples and apply this type of thinking to the specific challenges you are facing. 

Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking… 1 Peter 4:1