Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus

Posted On July 24, 2022

“Turn my eyes from worthless things, and give me life through your word.”

Psalm 119:37 NLT

This week we conclude our three-part hymn story series with “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus.” This story really spoke to me because it’s all about focus. When we feel scattered and pulled in a million different directions, it’s hard to know where to look. We have jobs, obligations, responsibilities, goals, dreams, desires, hobbies, talents, skills, and other people in our lives all competing for our attention.

We know we should let go of anything “bad” or contrary to God’s will, but what if everything in our lives is “good”? What if all that we’re doing is commendable, wholesome, God-honoring, and praiseworthy — and we’re really good at it — but it leaves us feeling distracted and overwhelmed? What if instead of experiencing the peace and joy that come with living in the center of God’s will, we are unfocused, unfulfilled, and just trying to survive each day?

I can relate! When I was a kid in school and first heard the term “Renaissance man,” I remember being fascinated by the idea of learning lots of things and developing a variety of interests. Consequently, I never really figured out what I wanted to be when I grew up because I basically wanted to be everything! And my life is a testimony to that desire: I am mediocre in several different areas, maybe even potentially good at a few if I were to put in the time required to improve my skills, but not really an expert in any of them. So is that a bad thing? Not necessarily, but it has definitely left me feeling a little lost at times, still trying to figure out what I’m really called to do and who I’m really called to be.

If any of this describes you, too, read on…

Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus

“Isabella Lilias Trotter (1853-1928) struggled with focus. As a young woman she was a very good painter, dazzling even the esteemed (and hard-to-please) art critic John Ruskin. He thought she could be ‘immortal,’ perhaps the ‘greatest living painter,’ if she would only focus on her art. As he saw it, she was spending too much time on the streets with the YWCA helping poor women, and not enough time at the easel.

“Trotter thought it might be the other way around: her art might be a distraction from a better calling. ‘Never has it been so easy to live in half a dozen good harmless worlds at once — art, music, social science, games, motoring, the following of some profession, and so on,’ she wrote. ‘And between them we run the risk of drifting about, the “good” hiding the “best.”‘

“She wrote about focus. ‘Dare to have it out with God . . . and ask Him to show you whether or not all is focused on Christ and His glory.’ She took her own advice, ‘having it out’ with God and deciding to give up painting to become a full-time missionary. After a stint in England with the YWCA, she went to Algeria in 1888, where she pioneered ministry among Muslims.

“That brings us to 1918, when a Christian singer and voice teacher named Helen Howarth Lemmel was handed a small booklet entitled ‘Focused.’ Its author was Lilias Trotter. In those pages, she read: ‘Turn full your soul’s vision to Jesus, and look at Him, and a strange dimness will come over all that is apart from Him.’

“Do you feel a song coming on? Lemmel did. ‘Suddenly,’ she wrote later, ‘as if commanded to stop and listen, I stood still, and singing in my soul and spirit was the chorus of the hymn with not one conscious moment of putting word to word to make rhyme, or note to note to make melody. . . . The verses were written . . . the same week, after the usual manner of composition, but none the less dictated by the Holy Spirit.’

“The song was published that year in London in pamphlet form, and then in a 1922 collection of Lemmel’s songs. It gained popularity through its use at the Keswick conferences.

“Consider what happened here. Two women, with a range of talents that could prove distracting, heard Jesus’ call to focus on him. They essentially collaborated on a song that invites us all to do the same, with the Holy Spirit knitting the words, notes, and ideas together. It’s amazing what focus can do.”

~Randy Petersen

“For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.”

Matthew 10:20 ESV

This week’s Scripture passages focus on lyrics from “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus,” a song written by two women who heeded the call to focus on Christ and be led by the Holy Spirit. We are called to do the same. Maybe we won’t be inspired to write a song with someone we’ve never met (or maybe we will), but we can be confident that the Holy Spirit will guide us in remarkable and possibly surprising ways when we turn our eyes to Him!

I have also included a video of The Living Stones Quartet from Kerala, India, performing this hymn. As you listen to their beautiful rendition, I hope you’ll be inspired to take the advice of Lilias Trotter and “dare to have it out with God.” Because the only way to sift through the “good” in order to find the “best” is to focus on Christ and ask Him to show you. Blessings to you, my friends!

“And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”

2 Corinthians 3:18 ESV

References:

• Petersen, Randy. Be Still My Soul: The Inspiring Stories behine 175 of the Most-Loved Hymns. Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2014.
• “TURN YOUR EYES UPON JESUS | THE LIVING STONES QUARTET ft. NIRMAL.” YouTube, uploaded by The Living Stones Quartet LSQ, 6 June 2019, https://youtu.be/zTZtKoAwf0U.

Images:

• Magnifying Glass featured image by ptato_graphic from Pixabay
• Bible and Magnifying Glass image by James Nichols from Pixabay
• Sunrise image by Avi Chomotovski from Pixabay