Keep Looking Up

Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. _{Colossians 3:2}

When your mind is on something in particular, your focus is continually driven in that direction until a satisfactory conclusion is achieved. As a Christian, the things we focus on are (or should be) different to those of the non-Christian. The apostle Paul was emphasizing this point to the church at Colossae by talking about earthly things and heavenly things, the flesh and the spirit, the old self and the new self. There is friction between all of these and we stand between the two on a daily basis.

Seeking the things that are above, and setting our mind on those things is a constant battle. Sometimes we don’t even know that we are in a battle. Simon Peter didn’t, for example, until Jesus said to him, “You are a stumbling block to Me. For you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men” ^{Matthew 16:23}. I sympathise with Peter because his heart was in the right place. He simply didn’t want any harm to come to the Lord Jesus. The problem was, there were other forces at work that Peter could not yet see or understand.

We see the bigger picture now, so we have less of an excuse, but it doesn’t always make it easy for us. Not everything on earth is bad, and there is so much good for us to enjoy, but we need to keep a watch on our priorities. If anything, bad or good, is taking our focus away from pursuing the things of God, or eating into time spent with him, then that is the thing that has become our stumbling block, and we need to realign our focus.

We are heavenly citizens in earthly bodies and we need to keep looking up, in order to pursue a heavenly focus for our earthly lives.