We have become a church, a society, and a culture in America that is extremely fascinated with ourselves.

It is in this environment that a pastor who longs to implant the Word of God firmly into the lives of those whom He finds under his watch will have to “counsel” and “shepherd”. Perhaps there are more challenging situations to find oneself in, but make no mistake, any pastor who believes in the sufficiency of Scripture will find himself swimming upstream in most of American culture today.

To come to the conclusion that the Bible’s central theme is the Glory of God is irrefutable. To see the clarion call to “look away from oneself” in all of Scripture is also not a hard endeavor. But yet, here we are, awash in a mass of humanity endlessly fascinated with themselves and increasingly acceptant of even their most wretched sin.

Anywhere one goes, you will be surrounded by people that think the answer to life’s problems is to look within to the depraved and wicked human heart and attempt to know the unknowable. You will see and encounter folks on an endless life journey to discover the origins and root causes or their foibles, insecurities, selfishness, fears, paranoias, embarrassing attributes, evil thoughts, perverted desires and idols. They will spend hours in self-introspection and years of their life trying to clarify the mess of their fallen condition. They will not rest until every past hurt is dealt with and every lingering transgression against them is massaged. They will attempt to boost their self-image and to ward off any doubts or fears that may make them feel un-whole. They will defiantly march on this journey of self-discovery and expect those who surround them to “give them their space” as they travel.

There’s only one problem. The answer to your most complex issues are not found within the cauldron of ignorance that is your human heart. The explanation for the state in which you find yourself can be found in no other place than the revelation of God Himself in the Bible. And a cursory glance into the Bible will reveal that God never called you to look inside yourself for the answer to life’s conundrums. God is funny that way. He thinks He is God and He thinks He has all the answers. Go figure…

As we come to the day on which we solemnly remember the Cross and the Resurrection of Jesus, we are reminded that for the Christian, life is found not by self-examination of our own hearts, but by the determined and intentional gaze AWAY from ourselves to the Savior who bled, died, was buried, and who rose. Truth and Clarity are found in Christ…not in the knowledge of ourselves. The heart is deceitful and wicked above all things, who can trust it?

There is no place in Scripture where God is portrayed as deceitful and wicked (except by the serpent in the Garden and by those who put God on trial) but yet the human heart is commonly portrayed that way. God never changes…our hearts never stay the same. So is it any surprise that we find (even in the church) that people are increasingly swayed by every latest fad and that even though they are constantly searching for answers, they never arrive at the truth. If you fix your life on something that is always shifting and has the real potential to lie to you, then shouldn’t you expect your life to be one big gigantic game of “whack-a-mole”?

But if we fix our eyes on Jesus…steady, perfect, unchanging, unflinching, never ending, always true Jesus…then as we keep our eyes on that person shouldn’t we expect to see our lives gradually become more steady, unchanging, unflinching, and true as well?

So the question is? What is your gaze fixed upon? Examine the circumstances of your life and ask yourself the question “Is my life the way it is because I’m constantly focused, thinking, examining and pursuing myself?” If the answer is yes, you need to change your focus. Quit worrying about you…and start studying and staring at Jesus!