As Son of God, Jesus is greater than angelic supernatural beings (chapter 1). As a true human being Jesus is greater than Moses (chapter 2). In fact, it is in Jesus and Jesus alone that we understand our true character and value, finding fulfillment and knowing peace.
Hebrews 3:1: “Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession”
This is truly inspiring, and the writer to the Hebrews says that as we fix our thoughts on the Lord Jesus and become fully occupied with Him all our thinking will be brought into proper focus. This is important because our thoughts govern us and often our thinking is wrong! Chapter 3 provides solemn, practical insight:
So here is the remedy for all our wrong mental attitudes. What are some of these things in the light of our key verses?
Do you ever get discouraged and if so, what is the remedy? It is to fix our thoughts on Jesus. Discouragement usually comes as the result of wrong thinking. When the Hebrew Christians were suffering dire persecution the writer of this letter sought to bring relief to their depressed and troubled minds by urging them to fix their thoughts on Jesus (Hebrews 12:2-3). Perhaps you have been discouraged because of some misunderstanding or because of persecution (Hebrews 12:3-4); perhaps it is because of loneliness or isolation; or perhaps a friend has let you down. Occupy your thoughts with Jesus.
Do you ever feel sorry for yourself so that you’re gripped by self-pity? The remedy is the same: “consider Jesus”. If we are filled with self-pity, we are very little good for anything; we feel that no-one has suffered what we have suffered and we lose all sense of grit and grip and grasp on life; we also lose our grace! How easy it would have been for the Lord Jesus to be sorry for Himself – for He was truly man and tempted in every way, just as we are tempted (Hebrews 4:15)! But He didn’t succumb to self-pity, and the way for us to get rid of this wretched feeling is to look away to Him who was rejected, cast out, misunderstood and in the end crucified. Look at Hebrews 12:4 and look to Him.
Do you suffer from this? Pride is the result of wrong thinking, and to know whether we suffer from it we need to ask these questions:
These are penetrating questions, but what is the remedy? Read Matthew 11:28-29; 20:26-28; John 13:1-6. In other words, look up Philippians 2:5-8. Do you suffer from pride? Fix your thoughts on Jesus and you will be humbled.
Some Christians are always miserable and defeated, in bondage to the wrong kind of timidity, nervousness and fear. In one sense it’s true that we are nothing, that we have nothing, that we can do nothing and that we are insufficient and inadequate; but it is also true that through faith in Christ we are God’s children, members of the Royal Household – kings and priests (Revelation 1:5-6; 2 Corinthians 12:9). Fix thoughts on Jesus and become occupied with Him.
Is lack of faith your besetting sin? How often Jesus has to say, ‘Where is your faith?’ (Luke 8:25); or ‘Why did you doubt?’ (Matthew 14:31). The Lord Jesus was surrounded by unbelief, yet He was filled with great confidence in His Father. When He was sitting with the doctors, He had faith in His mission (Luke 2:49); at the grave of Lazarus, He had faith that God would hear and answer His prayer (John 11:40-42); in Gethsemane He had faith in God’s purpose for Him (Luke 22:39-44): “consider him… so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”
It must be said that we don’t banish discouragement, self-pity, pride, inferiority feelings and unbelief simply by changing our mental attitudes; but when we look away to Jesus the Holy Spirit does something within us; He produces the change, the transformation: 2 Corinthians 3:18.
