Just When

September 28, 2007 Quote of the Week

"Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in HIS wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, by the light of His glory and grace." ~ Helen Limmel

“Pastor Myron,” I jokingly requested one Sunday. “Would it be okay if I was allowed to pre-approve all the music for each Sunday?” Looking at me as if I was slightly crazy knowing I wasn’t on the music team he asked me, “Why is that Karen?” The motive behind my request was to take out all the songs that touched my heart to tears every time I heard them sung.

Battling with life’s issues throughout the week, Sunday service was my spiritual gas station that I pulled in to weekly for refueling. It was a place to re-fill my strength giving me the energy to face another long week. Putting in to the parking lot on empty I managed to get there before totally running out.

Settling down in the sanctuary I would look through the song selection. The meter on my heart could detect which songs would send me out in the hall in tears because of the lyrics and the message behind them. This song from Helen Limmel was one of them. Yep, just like the tears I feel moisturizing my eyes right now.

Daily I was doing as the song suggested turning my eyes upon Jesus. It wasn’t His fault things were going as they were in my life. Disobedience to God, bad choices, rotten attitudes, and negative perspectives were at the root not Jesus. Sitting there in the service hearing others sing the songs I couldn’t, due to the tears, gave me a little too much time to think to myself. What could I possibly be doing wrong? Just when were the things in my life going to go dim? I knew they would some day but when.

Now as I turn around in order to look back I can see it was when God was ready to dim the darkness of my world with His light. I had things to learn, lessons that needed to be taught, maturity that needed to grow. I was taking a test that I hadn’t studied for and it was up to me to pass. The beauty of it all was I was never alone. The gas tank of my heart that I thought was running on empty really never was. It was running on Jesus power not mine. Christ’s eyes were on me as I was looking towards Him. The things in life were going to go strangely dim but in the meantime it was up to me to trust Him to know just when.

Closing thought: The most important part of this statement from Helen’s song is the fact that we are turning our eyes upon Jesus and trusting Him with the “Just When.” The question we should be asking ourselves is not “just when?” but are we looking fully or partially into His wonderful face? As hard as Satan tries to get his foot in the door of our lives to get our eyes off of Jesus the “just when” should never be wondering just when are we going to fully look to Jesus. The time for that is now. Praise the Lord!

We have a new host this week. Her name is Lori at I will take it Lord. Go on over there and meet her. In the meantime stop and share what others have to say about today’s quote. And by all means don't forget to turn your eyes upon Jesus. What He has to share with us is phenomenal.