It Starts Small

3 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. ² Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. ³ For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. ⁴ When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. ⁵ Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: Colossians 3:1-5

When we make Jesus our all we learn in these passages, we let Jesus captivate our ambition and next we learn to let Jesus dominate our affection. WE first SET, next we SEEK!

TO seek Jesus I have to set my affection on him. Affections here is translated attention. How do we set our attention on Jesus?

#1 Daily Choice

Paul reminds us in the book of Colossians that Jesus is our all and all we need is him!

⁶ Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7

We need to pra y and confess our need for him DAILY! WE need to spend each day with him confessing those hidden sins and seeking him to overcome. We need to ask him to show us through the Holy Spirit, things, thoughts, attitudes, grudges, bitterness that lead us into a downward spiral. Ask for his help in making better decisions, leading in our relationships, and to guide us and transform us into a new healthy way of living through him.

When we choose to not pray, seek him, spend time in God’s Word, pray, confess, and thank him for all he has given, we will never fully be able to set our ambition on the things above (vs1). It’s impossible! Our Heavenly Father loves us beyond what we can ever measure. He wants to have a relationship with us and is always here to help and make way through daily life, but if we are setting our focus and attention in Jesus, who reveals our Father, we will not be able to see him. We set our affection on Jesus daily and choose to keep our focus on him.

#2 Recognize THIS is bigger than you!

⁵ Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. ⁶ In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Proverbs 3:5-6

We set our affection on Jesus when we realize that pretty much everyday, all day, the things going on in our lives, the struggles, are bigger than we are, but never too big for him. It’s human nature to want to solve all our problems ourselves. To find our own way out of the darkness. But the truth is, we are nothing without Christ. We are adopted into the family of God. Jesus is God’s son, so that makes him our big brother!

Our big brother is perfect in all he does! We can run to him in troubles and he is there to protect us, guide us, stand up for us, care for us and heal us! Jesus is never going to lead us astray or cause us to walk a path of harm. People will hate us because of who he is, but he promises protection! When we are in the thick of life, we an look to our big brother and ask for help. Ask for help in the big and the small things of life!

#3 Big Brother Advice

We can set our affection on Jesus when we truly come to him for anything! Most particular, asking him for truth and understanding. Every moment of life we have an enemy who whispers lies. Satan whispers fear and lies into us and he desires for us to give him affection. To give life to seeds of fear. Satan is the father of lies and deception.

Jesus, our big Brother, is our Savior and speaks nothing but truth and reveals God’s amazing promises! Unlike Satan, Jesus takes our weaknesses and turns them into our strengths. Satan takes weakness and uses them as a weapon against others and to blossom unbelief.

We set our affection on Jesus when we open God’s word and seek truth. Jesus works through the Holy Spirit to reveal truth in all things. We need to set a special time in each day to just sit and meditate upon scripture. When my filthy thoughts go to places that aren’t right, I have trained myself to pull put a small index card with that day’s verse on it. I say a quick prayer of cleansing and focus on that verse. Our affection, attention, can be diverted from things we should focus on to him by simply meditating on a verse of scripture.

Jesus wants to reveal truth in our lives. He wants to spend time with us. He is here in all we do, and he will rescue us in moments of darkness. Set your attention on his word!

#4 Put the Full Armor of God on!

I’ve written extensively on this! When we put the full armor of God on, we are putting all of Jesus on. This is how we let him fight our battles and give us victory and liberation in our lives!

Put all of Jesus on: Truth and Righteousness
Put all of Jesus on: Peace and Faith
Victory In Jesus
Putting on Jesus: Sanity and a Sword

Jesus is here to fight for us! When we put our full trust in him, put him on everyday, we are promised victory in our lives. Trust is putting attention on Jesus. It’s a language and action of love for our Savior.

#5 Guard your Heart

²³ Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. Proverbs 4:23

Our inner thoughts, actions, and words really do matter! What comes to mind, out of our mouth and the actions we do come out of our heart. From our heart comes the power to dictate our choices and we need to understand what power we are running on. Have we given power to evil to seek to destroy not only ourselves, but the very blessing of God, or do we run on the power of the Holy Spirit?

We need to guard our hearts by protecting it and keeping it safe. We need to trust in Jesus to seal the doors of hate and evil and to daily cleanse our hearts. This requires effort on our part. Instead of drowning in anxiety and struggles, Jesus is our life raft. We need to give him and trust him in all our situations. We must CHOOSE to give him all of life’s struggles. We must TRUST him by letting go and and let him be in control.

#6 Jesus is with you!

¹⁰ Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Isaiah 41:10

Not only do we have a big brother that defeated death, we have a big brother who loves us and will never leave us. You can never disappoint Jesus! You can never get too far off the path. You can never sin to the point he will forsake you or leave you! He is going to always be there for you!

There are going to be times you can not see him working or know what he is doing, but you can always trust he is working ahead, going behind, and standing right next to you! It’s through Jesus our Father works his goodness and faithfulness to those who love him and are called by him. When we run to Jesus in everything, seek him and his comfort and strength, we are setting our affections on him.

Jesus is all we need! To get all of him we first let him dominate our ambition and then set all our attention on him. When we seek and set, then Christ helps us to put to death the things our Father hates. Are we giving all our focus and affection to Jesus?