Turn Your Eyes: 5 Ways to Fight Lukewarm Christianity

Most of you probably know the hymn, “Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus.”

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face
And the things of this world will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace.

Often, we sing hymns and read verses, but don’t grasp their magnitude and significance. The words of this hymn recently hit me. If you are fixing your gaze on Jesus, all the things of this world will grow dim: they will seem less important. All your worries and cares will lose their grip on you as you look to Jesus.

We can use this hymn as a test: if the things of this world are not growing dim (less important), then our eyes are not fixed upon Jesus. And the consequence of eyes that are not fixed on Jesus, is a heart that is lukewarm at best.

Jesus doesn’t want a little piece of your heart; He isn’t satisfied with half of it. Not even most of it will do. He wants all of your heart!

Lukewarm Hearts

In Revelation, the church in Laodicea was rebuked for being lukewarm:

“I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm–neither hot nor cold–I am about to spit you out of My mouth,” (Revelation 3:15-16).

These are harsh words!

Yet, this might as well be describing a large majority of the church today. This is an age of ease, pleasure, and wealth. We generally enjoy comfortable lives and have grown distracted with material things.

It comes down to what we are invested in. What consumes us? All too often, it’s the things of this world that occupy our hearts and divert our eyes from what is really important; the Lord.

As teenagers especially, we’re invested in body image, friends, social acceptance, material things, and the list goes on and on. While these things are not bad in and of themselves, they become detrimental when they preoccupy our minds and influence our decisions—when they make us content with never growing in our faith.

We should never be content with where we are in our spiritual lives. Even the oldest of Christians should still be growing every day. Being content with our spiritual lives is apathy; this is the definition of lukewarm Christianity.

5 Ways to Fix Our Eyes

So how do we overcome lukewarm Christianity?

Maybe you’re like me, and you’re hearing this and want to change your focus. Maybe you’re not sure how. I’ve come up with some practical ways we can live for Jesus and fix our eyes on Him.

1 Read your Bible! Don’t just read it, study it, meditate on it, and learn how it applies to your life. Reflect on the attributes of God and praise Him. The Bible is very important for growth as a Christian. Spend quality time in the Word daily. I encourage you to read through the books of Ecclesiastes and Proverbs if you want a good place to start. You will find yourself thinking more and more of heavenly things.

2 Pray! Prayer is so necessary for a strong faith. Again, don’t just do this to check it off your checklist, but pray to grow closer to God. Ask Him for strength and bring your weakness before Him. Pray for others. In doing so, you will develop a Christ-like heart. Talk to God every day!

3 Serve others! You know the acronym JOY: Jesus, Others, Yourself. After putting God first in your life and thoughts, put others second. Even when you don’t feel like it, be kind. Die to self and selfish desires. Pour yourself into others. You have been blessed; now go and be a blessing.

4 Get serious about getting rid of sin! Take committed and practical steps to get rid of sin in your life. Seek mentorship and relationship with passionate, dedicated Christians. Ask God for strength to be obedient as He actively eradicates your sinful behaviors. When people grow comfortable in their little sins is when the church grows lukewarm. So, pray that He would make you uncomfortable in sin.

5 Control your thought life! This is so hard because thoughts seem involuntary. In reality, however, our thoughts, and eventually our words and actions, stem from what we are feeding our minds. So yes, listening to that secular music with innuendo and bad language does have a negative effect on you. I know that is a hard pill to swallow. What we listen to, watch, read, and who we hang out with all have a bigger impact on us than we think. You might need to change your playlists, watch different movies, stop scrolling through social media altogether, and surround yourself with godly friends. Whatever it takes to get control of your thought life. As you make an effort to eliminate the negative influences, you will see a positive impact on your thoughts.

“For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.” Proverbs 23:7, KJV

Go to a Dying World

This world will make it so hard for us to follow Jesus. It will constantly seek to distract our vision and invade our hearts, cooling our affection for Jesus and our desire to serve Him. In the world, we will have trouble. But we can take heart because Jesus has overcome the world (John 16:33)!

And He has commissioned us to go into all the world and share the gospel (Mark 16:15).

His word shall not fail you He promised
Believe Him and all will be well
Then go to a world that is dying
His perfect salvation to tell

We have a job to do. Let’s be diligent to fight lukewarm Christianity. Let us comfort one another with the Word of God and build one another up in the faith! Let us turn our eyes upon Jesus!