Eyes on the Author and Perfecter

Every Tuesday, we get our verse of the week to meditate and memorize. I want to encourage you to keep trying to focus on just one verse for the week. If you stay determined, the Word will take root in your heart. If you have failed with some of the previous verses, don’t get discouraged and quit, but continue to press on. This spiritual discipline is worth pressing through our failure! So free yourself of guilt and let’s go!

Eyes on the Author and Perfecter

By Shirley Mitchell

“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Hebrews 12:2

We have been called to turn our eyes from other things and turn to Jesus. Our gaze is to be fixed. We are supposed to be so intent on following Him, serving Him, and knowing Him more and more that we would not dare to let our eyes drift to the tantalizing things of this world. Even with all the dazzle and glamour, the charms of this world won’t capture our eyes. We should only have eyes for Him. “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus.”

Jesus is the author and perfecter of our faith. Jesus is authored or originated our faith. Through the cross and His resurrection, He paid for our sins and redeemed us. We place our faith in what He did for us. Thus, He is the creator of our faith.

He is also the perfecter or the finisher of our faith. He makes our faith perfect. At the beginning of our salvation and walk with God our faith is baby faith. As we fix our eyes with Jesus and believe God enough to act of it, our faith grows. Every time we choose to believe God maybe even over our senses or over our logical brains our faith matures. God allows us to face tough days and rough seasons so He can mold and shape our faith into perfect maturity. When we commit our lives to Him and seek Him with everything, He loves us too much to leave us with weak faith or a weak vision of Him. Life’s most agonizing moments and darkest hours can become heaven’s finest eternal jewels when we choose God.

Our eyes are fixed on the One who endured the cross for us and bore its shame. He did it because He knew what was coming after the cross. He longed for us to experience the joy being with the Father. His Father and He shared much joy and He longed to share it with us.

After the cross, Jesus didn’t just disappear into the realms of heaven. Taking His place, He sat down at the right hand of God the Father. This is His rightful place. We can’t begin to imagine this scene in heaven going on right now. In heaven, the Father and Son who deeply love each other experience a joy that you and I have never known and only catch glimpses. In heaven, all creatures fix their gaze on their Creator and the One worthy of worship.

My friend, let’s make the conscious decision to choose God. Let’s fix our eyes on Him and remember how He endured the cross and bore its shame so He could sit down at the right hand of God. Carry this verse with you wherever you go this week – be it an index card or in your heart. Study it, pulverize it, and memorize it!

Memorization Reminders:

Please join me in memorizing these verses and implanting God’s thoughts into our minds. I’m expecting for God to radically change our lives if we do this. Redeem your time to make room for memorizing God’s Word. Take this verse with you wherever you go. Meditate on it, and pulverize it.

We are blessed to live in a time where we can have the Bible at our fingertips even through the internet or an actual Bible in our hands. Yet, this blessing can become a curse if we do not treat the Bible with such honor to savor every word of it as those through the centuries who have longed to have His Word so much. They had to memorize every Scripture they had ever been given because their own copy of the Scripture was not possible.

Most of us probably don’t memorize Scripture because we think that we do not have the time. However, our minds have a lot of wasted space that can be given to God. We have to redeem the time. For women, we can use the time while putting on our make-up or blow drying our hair. For men, use the time while shaving. For both genders, we can use the time while we shower, stop at red lights, do the laundry, wash the dishes, and mow the lawn. Let’s face it: our minds are thinking about something during this time. Instead of being focused on our obsessions, worries, cares, to-do’s, and problems, give this time to God.

Take your verse(s) with you wherever you go. You can type your verse out and put it on beautiful sheets of your choice. You can write it out on index cards. Many people prefer index cards spiral bound to keep them together. For iphone users, I’m sure there is an app. You can write it on your iphone notepad or record your voice speaking it and replay it throughout the day.

Now that we have the verse and we have found the time, let’s focus on the method. We don’t just memorize it by saying it over and over; we meditate on it. We spend time thinking about what each word means and what it doesn’t mean.

Then one of my favorite techniques as taught by Waylon Moore is to pulverize the verse. Say the verse over and over each time focusing on a different word in the verse to emphasize. For example, say Hebrews 12:2 (today’s verse) aloud and say with more umph the underlined and bolded word:

“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Hebrews 12:2

“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Hebrews 12:2

“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Hebrews 12:2

“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Hebrews 12:2

“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Hebrews 12:2

Repeat this process until each word in the verse has been emphasized.

After meditating and pulverizing the verse continuously for a week, the seed planted in our hearts will begin to germinate. You and I will no longer be merely short-term memorizing, but the Word will dwell within us. When God’s Word dwells within us, something miraculous happens. Our minds are renewed and transformed into the mind of Christ. We worry and fret less. We are armed for the attacks of the enemy. Our lips will be full of praise for our God. My friend, I’m ready for that kind of transformation!