“Looking Unto Jesus”

by Adolphe Monod, (1802-56)

Unto Jesus, and not to the apparent success of our efforts. Apparent success is not the measure of real success, and besides, God has not commanded us to succeed, but to work. It is of our work that He will require an account and not of our success. It is for us to sow the seed; it is for God to gather the fruit: if not today, it will be tomorrow; if not by us, it will be by others.

Even when success is granted us, it is always dangerous to let our eyes rest upon it complacently; on the one hand we are tempted to attribute something of it to ourselves; on the other hand, we thus accustom our selves to give way to relaxing our zeal when we cease to perceive its effects, that is to say at the very time when we ought to redouble our energy. To look to success is to walk by sight; to look to Jesus and to persevere in following and serving Him in spite of all discouragements, is to walk by faith.

Looking unto Jesus, while we remain upon earth; to Jesus from moment to moment. Unto Jesus now, if we have never looked to Him. Unto Jesus anew, if we have ceased to do so. Unto Jesus alone. Unto Jesus again. Unto Jesus always, with a look more and more earnest, more and more confident; “transformed into the same image from glory to glory;” and thus waiting for the hour when He shall call us to pass from earth to heaven, and from time to eternity – the promised hour, the blessed hour, when at length “we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as he is.”