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"Looking at the sin," wrote Theodore Monod, "only gives death; looking at Jesus gives life." Psalm 32:3-4 and Psalm 38:3-10 both say that your personal sins, unrelieved by Jesus, can give you physical weakness, depression, heart palpitations, back pains, a tendency to infections, vision problems, and even bad posture. Right now are you more aware of your sins than you are of Jesus? Focusing on them will do you in. There's no godliness in continually mourning over your sins. There's no merit in spending your life wringing your hands and crying, "I'm such a sinner! Oh, my awful sins!" Any occupation with self is, in itself, sin. So don't even make the matter of seeking to renounce your sins the big focus of your life. If you're a man, do you play with toy cars? Probably not. You did as a boy -- but there came a time when driving a real one was more fun, and you just quit playing with the others. You didn't give up toy cars; they gave up you. If you're a woman, do you play with dolls? Probably not. You used to -- but one day a fellow asked you out, and you discovered something better! You didn't give up dolls; they gave up you. And when you fix your eyes on Jesus and you find out that He's flooding into you His resurrection life and power -- you don't renounce a life of sin; it will renounce you. Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse used to say, There are two ways of walking from London to Edinburgh. You can walk backwards all the way, looking back at London; or you can turn your back on London and walk with your face toward Edinburgh. There are two ways in which you can be separated from the world and say, "I am renouncing the world," or you can look toward the Lord Jesus and say, "Lord, I am coming toward You;" and every step you take toward the Lord you will find yourself further from all the rests of those things.1 Fix your eyes on Jesus. ________________ 1. The Keswick Week, 1955, p. 146. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prayer: Lord, You have said that "if we confess our sins, [You are] faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). Lord, I do that right now. [Spend some leisurely time confessing to Him, in words, your sins.] O Lord, I realize how painfully incomplete this list is. You are so pure, I don't even begin to know all the multitude of ways that I offend a holy God. But, Lord, Your promise is that if I confess what I do know, You will purify me from all unrighteousness -- everything I don't know as well and make me wholly clean. How wonderful! Thank You, Father! What a blessing! And now, my God, I don't want to spend my life walking backwards, with my eyes always fixed on what I'm discarding. "Forgetting those things that are behind . . . I press on toward the goal" (Philippians 3:13-14). Lord, what a happy way to walk, with my face toward You! I fix my eyes on Jesus. "The path of the just is like the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day" (Proverbs 4:18). Alleluia! * * * * * Sin will keep you from fixing your eyes on Jesus, or fixing your eyes on Jesus will keep you from sin.

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