Looking to Jesus in Scripture to find out who He is, what He has done, and what He desires; to discover in the Scriptures His character, that He may be our model; to find in His teachings our guide, in His commandments our rule of life, in His promises the support we need, in His Person and work, the fulfillment of all the longings of our soul.

Looking to Jesus crucified, to find in His shed blood, our redemption, forgiveness, and peace.

Looking to the risen Jesus , to find in Him the justice that justifies us and allows us, with all our unworthiness, to draw boldly in His Name to Him who is His Father and our Father, His God and our God.

Looking to the glorified Jesus , to know that He is our heavenly Defender, the One who intercedes for us and continues the work of His love for our salvation (1. John 2:1), intervening for us before the face of God (Hebrews 9:24), as High Priest, the blameless Lamb, bearing unceasingly the iniquity done in bringing holy things (Exodus 28:38).

Looking to Jesus revealed by the Holy Spirit, to find in unbroken fellowship with Him, the cleansing of our sin-stained hearts, the illumination of our dark hearts, and the transformation of our rebellious will; to be able to triumph through Him, in all attacks from the world and from the evil one, resisting the wrath of these attacks through Jesus, our Strength; thwarting their wiles through the Lord Jesus, our Wisdom; being sustained by the compassion of the Lord Jesus, who was not spared from any temptation, and by the help of the Lord Jesus, who yielded to none.

Looking to Jesus, who gives us repentance, as well as forgiveness of sins (Acts 5:31), because He is the One who gives us the grace to acknowledge our transgressions, to lament, confess and forget them.

Looking to Jesus, to receive from Him, every day the service to perform and the cross to carry, to receive grace, to be patient with His patience, to work His works, to love with His love; without ever asking ourselves, 'What can I do?', but  'What can't He do?', relying on His power, which is made perfect in weakness.

Looking to Jesus, to come out of ourselves and forget ourselves; that our darkness may be dispelled in the light of His shining Face; that our joys may be holy, and our sufferings light; whether He humbles or exalts us, whether He grieves or comforts us, or He leads us into want or riches, when He teaches us to pray or when He answers our prayers; so that after He has left us in this world, He sets us aside, our lives being hidden with Him in God (Colossians 3:3), and our walking testifying of Him before men.

Looking to Jesus, who is now in the Father's house where He has gone to prepare a place for us (John 14:2), that this happy prospect may cause us to live with the hope of His return, and ready to die in peace, if the time comes to meet this last enemy, whom He has conquered for us.

Looking to Jesus, whose return is certain, at a moment still unknown. This has been the expectation and hope of the faithful Church for centuries, which is encouraged to be patient, to watch with joy, thinking that the Lord is near (Philippians 4:4,5;  1.Shipping: Thessalonians 5:23).

Looking to Jesus, the Head and Finisher of faith, that is, the One who is the model, source and goal of faith; The One who is with us from the first to the last step, so that our faith is inspired by Him, encouraged, sustained, and brought to its supreme perfection.

Looking at Jesus and nothing else, as the verse in Hebrews 12:2 says, which directs us to fix our eyes on Him and leave everything else behind.

To Jesus, and not at all to ourselves, to our thoughts, to our reasonings and imaginations, to our inclinations, desires, and plans.

To Jesus, and not at all to the world, to its habits, examples, principles, and judgments.

To Jesus, and not to Satan, even if he tries to frighten us with his anger or deceive us with flattery. O! How we would be relieved of useless questions, unsettling scruples, wasted time, dangerous dealings with evil, waste of energy, vain dreams, bitter disappointments, painful struggles, lamentable falls—if we would always look to Jesus and simply follow Him wherever He leads us.

To Jesus, and not to our systems, even evangelical ones. The faith that saves, sanctifies, and comforts is not consent to the doctrine of salvation, but adherence to the Person of the Savior.  No one can truly know Him unless he first has the life of the Lord Jesus: "In Him was life, and life was the light of men" (John 1:4).

To Jesus, and not at all to our meditations and prayers, to our godly conversations and our edifying studies, to the fraternal gatherings we attend, or even to our participation in the Lord's Supper. Let us make faithful use of all these means of grace, but without confusing them with Grace itself, and without turning our eyes away from Him Who alone makes them useful, when, through them, He reveals Himself to us.

To Jesus, and not at all to our position in the Christian Church, to the family to which we belong, to our baptism, to the education we have received, to the doctrine we hold, to the opinion that others make or that we form ourselves about our godliness. Some who have prophesied in Jesus' name will one day hear Him say to them, 'I never knew you' (Matthew 7:22,23); but He will testify before His Father and the holy angels even about the humblest of those who have looked to Him.

To Jesus, and not to our brothers and sisters, not even to the best of them or to the most beloved. By following a person, we increase the risk of getting lost; by following Jesus, we are sure that we will never go astray. Moreover, if a person sits between Jesus and us, it ends, without us noticing, that person grows and Jesus decreases in our eyes; soon we will no longer know how to find Jesus, when we cannot find help in man; and when the man we were leaning on falls, everything collapses with him. On the contrary, if Jesus has His place between us and our closest friend, attachment to man will be less captivating, but deeper, less passionate, but sweeter, less necessary, but more useful; will be the instrument of rich blessings in the hands of God, when He will use it, and its absence will also be a blessing, when He wills to deprive us of it, in order to draw us all the nearer to the one Friend from whom neither death can separate us, nor life" (Romans 8:38,39).

To Jesus, and not to His enemies and ours. Instead of hating them or fearing them, we will therefore know how to love and overcome them.

To Jesus, and not to the obstacles we encounter on our way. If we stop to examine them, we are surprised, frightened, misleading, because we are unable to understand why they are allowed and the means by which we can overcome them. The apostle began to sink as soon as he looked at the storm-stirring waves; when he looked at Jesus, he walked on water as on land (Matthew 14:29,30). The more difficult the mission is and the more difficult the temptations to overcome, the more important it is to fix our gaze only on Jesus.

To Jesus, and not at all to our sorrows, to reckon their number, to weigh them, and to indulge in the strange pleasure of savoring their bitterness. Without Jesus, sorrow does not sanctify, but hardens and crushes. It produces rebellion and not patience, selfishness and not sympathy, despair and not hope (Romans 5:3,4).  Only in the shadow of His cross can we appreciate the true weight of our cross, accept it every day from His hand, carry it with love, gratitude and joy, finding in it, both for ourselves and for others, a source of blessing.

To Jesus, and not to the most precious and legitimate of our earthly joys, lest they captivate us so much as to distract us from the One who gave them to us. By fixing our eyes on Him, we understand that from Him we receive these good things, thousands of times more precious because we know them to be gifts received from His loving Hand, and we entrust them to His care to enjoy fellowship with Him and to use them for His glory.

To Jesus, and not to the instruments, whatever they may be, that He uses with regard to us. Let us rise above men, above circumstances, above thousands of motives, justly called secondary, to the main goal - His will, to the source of this will - His own love. Therefore, our gratitude, without diminishing for those who do us good, does not stop at them; so in the day of trial, under the most unexpected, the most inexplicable, the most overwhelming blow, we will be able to say like the psalmist: 'I remain silent, I do not open my mouth, for you have done this' (Psalm 39:9). And in the silence of our silent sorrow, we will hear the heavenly voice, sweet and gentle: 'What I do, you do not understand now, but you will understand afterwards' (John 13:7).

To Jesus, and not to the interests of our cause, our party, our church, and still less to our personal interests. The only purpose of our life is the glory of God. If we do not make His glory our primary purpose, we must inevitably deprive ourselves of His support, for His grace is only in the service of His glory. If, on the contrary, we put His glory above all else, we can always count on His grace.

To Jesus, and not at all to the sincerity of our intentions, to the firmness of our decisions. Go! How many times have the best plans served only to prepare for the most humiliating defeats! Let us not rely on our intentions, but on His love; not on our resolutions, but on His promises.

To Jesus, and not to our power. Our power is only good to glorify ourselves; to glorify God, we need power from Him.

To Jesus, and not to our weakness. By complaining about our weakness, have we ever become stronger? Let us look to Jesus, and His power will transmit itself to our hearts, and praise for Him will pour from our lips.

To Jesus, and not to our sins, to the source from which they spring (Matthew 15:19), or to the punishment they deserve. Let us look at ourselves only long enough to realize how much we need to look at Him; This, certainly, not because we are not sinners, but on the contrary, because we are, and we see the horror of sin compared to the greatness of the atoning sacrifice and the grace that has forgiven us. The contemplation of sin gives only death, but the contemplation of Jesus gives life; what healed the Israelite in the wilderness was not the look at his wounds, but the exalted gaze at the serpent of brass (Numbers 21:9).

To Jesus, and not to the claims of our own righteousness. The sickest of the sick is the one who thinks he is healthy, the most blind of the blind is the one who thinks he sees clearly (John 9:41); As dangerous as it may be to look too much at our vileness, far more dangerous is to rely on imaginary merits.

To Jesus, and not to the law. The law gives rules, but it does not give the power to fulfill them; The law always condemns and never forgives. To put yourself back under the law is to turn away from grace. From the moment we make obedience the way of our salvation, we lose peace, power, joy, because we forget that Jesus is "the end of the law, that whoever believes in Him may obtain righteousness" (Romans 10:4). From the moment when the law compels us to seek in Him our only Saviour, Him alone has the right to condemn us, and to Him alone we owe obedience; an obedience that involves our whole heart and our innermost thoughts, but which has ceased to be an iron yoke and an unbearable burden, becoming a good yoke and an easy burden (Matthew 11:30). An obedience that He makes pleasing to us and that at the same time obliges; an obedience that He inspires and at the same time demands; which is both a consequence of salvation and a part of that salvation; and which, like all the others, is freely given to us.

To Jesus, and not to what we do for Him. Too busy with the work, we can forget the Master. It is possible to have full hands and empty hearts. If we are concerned with our Master, we will not neglect the work; if the heart is filled with His love, how will not the hands be active in His service?

To Jesus, and not to the apparent success of our efforts. Apparent success is not the measure of real success; and, on the other hand, God did not command us to succeed, but to work. Why, then, should we worry? Our part is to sow the seed, and it is God who will reap the fruit; if not today, then tomorrow; if not through us, then through others. Even if success is given to us, it is dangerous to focus our eyes on it: on the one hand, we are tempted to attribute certain merits to ourselves, on the other hand, we get into the habit of losing our zeal when we no longer see results, that is, just when we should be all the more energetic. To look at success is to walk through sight; to look to Jesus, to follow Him earnestly, and to serve Him, despite all the discouragements, is to walk by faith.

To Jesus, and not at all to the spiritual gifts already received or which we now receive from Him. As for yesterday's grace, it passed with the service for which it was given. We can no longer use it, nor should we dwell on it. As for today's grace, it is not entrusted to us to contemplate it, but to use it; not to measure its value and, seeing its abundance, to think ourselves rich, but to spend it quickly and remain poor, "looking to Jesus".

To Jesus, and not to the pain accumulated because of our sins or the degree of humiliation they produce in us. Even if we were so humiliated by this that we would no longer be delighted with ourselves, if we were sad enough to look to Jesus to deliver us - that is all He requires of us, and this is also the look which, more than anything, brings tears to our eyes and gives a death blow to pride. And when it is given to us, as to Peter, to weep bitterly (Luke 22:62), ah! then let our eyes darkened with tears remain more than ever fixed on Him, otherwise repentance itself may become an obstacle if we think of erasing to a  certain extent, by tears, those sins which nothing can blot out but the blood of the Lamb of God.

To Jesus, and not to our joy, to the firmness of our security, or to the ardor of our love. Otherwise, if love seems to cool down a little, if our security shakes, if joy is lacking - either because of our unfaithfulness or because of the trial of our faith - then, losing these feelings, we think that we have lost our strength and we give ourselves up to boundless pain, if not to inactivity mixed with fear or to a guilty murmur. Ah! Rather, let us remember that if we sometimes lack the feelings and emotions brought by them, faith and strength remain with us. And so that we may "always abound in the work of the Lord" (1 Corinthians 15:58), let us look unceasingly, not to our fickle hearts, but to Jesus who always remains the same.

To Jesus, and not at all to the degree of holiness to which we have reached. If one does not consider himself a child of God while he still sees traces of filth in his heart and stumbling blocks in his life, how could he ever taste the joy of salvation? This joy cannot be bought. Holiness is the fruit of our salvation and not the source of our redemption. It is the work of Jesus Christ for us to be reconciled to God; it is the work of the Holy Spirit in us to make us more and more like Him. The imperfection of a sincere but not yet strengthened faith does not diminish in any way the fullness of the Savior's perfect work, nor the certainty of His unchanging promises, nor the assurance of eternal life to all who trust in Him. and the soul has the strength to fight only by enjoying the peace of forgiveness. To the one who unscrupulously abuses this blessed truth in order to abandon himself to spiritual laziness, and who imagines that he can replace the holiness he lacks with a faith which he thinks he has, should be reminded of this solemn statement of the Apostle Paul: "Those of Christ have crucified their flesh with its passions and lusts" (Galatians 5:24) and that of the Apostle John: "He who says, 'I know Him,' and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him" (1. John 2:4) and another to the Lord Jesus himself: 'Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire' (Matthew 7:19).

To Jesus, and not to our defeats or victories. If we look at defeats, we will be discouraged; If we look at victories, we will be filled with vain pride. Neither can help us in the good fight of faith (1 Timothy 6:12). Like all other blessings, the victory and the faith by which this victory is gained are gifts of God through our Lord Jesus Christ (1:1). Corinthians 15:57) and all glory is due to Him.

To Jesus, and not to our doubts. The more we dwell on doubts, the greater they seem to us, so much so that they seem to suffocate our faith, strength, and joy entirely. But if we turn our eyes to the Lord Jesus, who is the Truth (John 14:6), doubts will be dispelled in the light of His presence like clouds before the sun.

To Jesus, and not to our faith. The last cunning of the enemy, when he cannot make us look away, is to turn our eyes from the Saviour to our faith, and either to discourage us if it is weak, or to make us proud if it is strong, so that in both cases we may be powerless. For power does not come from faith, but from the Savior, through faith; and not by looking at what we seem to ourselves, but by looking at Jesus.

By looking to Jesus and from Him and in Him we will learn what we need to know about the world, about ourselves, about the pains and dangers that lie in wait for us, about our resources and our victories; from Him we learn without being in danger, for the benefit of our souls; we will know how to see all things in their true light, because He will show them to us only at the right time and to the extent that this knowledge will produce in us the fruit of humility, wisdom, gratitude, courage, vigilance, and prayer. All that is desirable to know, the Lord Jesus will teach us; whatever we do not learn from Him, it is better not to know.

Looking at Jesus during the time we have left on this earth, with our eyes fixed on Jesus moment by moment, we do not allow ourselves to be disturbed either by the memories of a past that we must leave behind, or by the concerns of a future about which we know nothing.

Looking at Jesus now,  if we have never looked at Him,
Looking at Jesus again, if we have stopped for a moment to look at Him,

Only to Jesus, to Jesus without ceasing,

To Jesus always, with an ever more persistent, more and more trusting gaze, being "transformed in the same image from glory to glory" (2. Corinthians 3:18); Thus awaiting the moment when He will call us to pass from earth to heaven and from time to eternity—the promised moment, the blessed moment, when at last 'we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is' (1. John 3:2).