“If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. ² Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. ³ For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. ⁴ When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory” (Colossians 3:1-4).

As we focus on things above, we demonstrate where our HEART really is… what our true treasure is. Anyone can say they love the Lord, but the manner in which we run the race manifests where our heart really is. If we truly love the Lord, we will LOOK towards Him and fix our gaze upon Him. We will look towards the One who has captured our hearts and towards the One for which we have great affection.

We will seek things above, because that is where Christ is. People naturally seek after that which their hearts treasure. Jesus said, “For where you treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:21). Focusing on Christ and things above is not primarily a matter of the head (though it involves information and truth). It is primarily a matter of the heart. If we truly love the Lord, our lives will be focused on Him, and our affections will be on Him and on things above. This kind of heart affection is not something that Law can produce in us. This is the result of LIFE… an abundant life… spending time with Christ in His word… beholding His glory. The more we get to know Christ, the more motivated we will be to run towards Him. Heart affection towards Christ enables us to run. It is our motivation to keep on running – because we LOVE the Lord.

In Colossians 3, we are commanded to be seeking and setting our affection on things above, where Christ is, and where we are to dwell in Him. Heaven is our home. We have already been positionally raised up into heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Thus, we are to have a HEAVENLY focus as we live our earthly lives and as we run the earthly race. Our feet are running the race upon the earth, but our hearts are focused on Christ in heaven. That is our true treasure. If we truly treasure Him, we will run with endurance, and we will be more than happy to lay aside any weights that hinder us from running closer to Christ. If we truly treasure Him and our affections are above, then whatever we are called to suffer and sacrifice in running the race will be worth it all!

Consider the warning in Colossians 3:2b. There is an ever present danger of setting our affection on things of the earth. The things of the earth refer to all earthly things. They are not necessarily evil – some are; some are not. But that’s not the point. The point here is that the things of earth can be distractions. It is impossible to keep your eyes focused on two realms at once. You have to make a choice. You can’t be focused on things above and things below at the same time. You can’t set your affections on things above and on things of the earth. You can’t have two masters. Anything that takes our eyes off the prize… anything that distracts us from focusing on Christ is to be avoided. Some of those distractions are sinful (lay aside the besetting sins) and some are not sinful (lay aside every weight). Earthly distractions are to be laid aside like weights, so that we might run the race unencumbered, unhindered, and so that we might WIN. There are many earthly things that are not necessarily evil, but they should be discarded if they distract us from running the race… if they are weighing us down… or hindering progress towards the goal: Christ and Christlikeness!

We will only be able to run with patient endurance IF we are looking unto Jesus and IF we are focused on Christ and seeking things above. The moment our attention is distracted and we shift our affections and our focal point to earthly things, we begin to sink… we begin to slip away… we begin to fall back in the race. And don’t think our adversary doesn’t know this. This is his tactic. Satan is the god of this world. He uses the things of this world to distract our attention from heavenly and spiritual things. He uses the things of the world to allure us off course, down a dead end street, and thus setting us behind in the race. He uses the things of the world to capture our hearts and affection. Hence, we are commanded, “Love not the world, neither the things in the world” (I John 2:15). Nothing is more effective in causing a believer to slip behind in the race than to distract his focus with earthly things. The devil knows that the believer will run towards whatever his eyes are focused on and his heart treasures.

Of course the only answer to our adversary’s tactics is the CROSS… where we DIED with Christ. “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world” (Gal. 6:14). We died to the world and the world unto us. Death to the world isn’t something we are trying to accomplish or produce. We are not attempting to DIE to the world. We already died to the world and the world unto us. The world is a defeated foe and has no more authority over us. Our passage in Colossians 3:3 puts it this way: “For ye ARE dead and your life is hid with Christ in God.” We died with Christ and thus died to the world. Thus, we have been redeemed and delivered from the world system and its god. And as long as we BELIEVE what God said and walk in faith, looking unto Jesus – we can experience victory over the attractions and distractions in the world. This does not mean that the world will no longer be appealing or that there will be no more temptations in the world. Our old nature is alive and well. Temptations don’t disappear, but by faith we keep our old man (the man who loved the world) on the cross. With our eyes of faith focused on Christ and things above, empowered by the Holy Spirit, we will continue running the race with patience. As a new creature alive unto God and focused on our Savior, we will be enabled by faith to run right past those worldly distractions, because something higher and nobler has caught our eye. As we continue on in faith, believing that we are dead to the world, looking unto Jesus, we experience victory. Focus is everything.

And how are we enabled to keep on running the race if we focus on things above and seek things above where Christ is?

“Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” As we run the race by faith (believing that we died with Christ to the world and to the things of the world), we experience a separation in heart from the world and its trinkets. As the hymn writer wrote: “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in His wonderful face; And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.” And as our hearts are weaned away from the things of this world, our hearts are drawn nearer still nearer to Christ… and we begin to discover what Paul meant when he said, “Your life is hid with Christ in God.” We begin to discover the glory of this truth: while we are running the race down here on earth, our REAL life (our spiritual life) is being nourished by Christ, (Col.2:19) our Head, our Good Shepherd, the Vine.

LOOKING UNTO JESUS speaks of looking unto Him with the eyes of faith, no longer distracted by the cares and entanglements of this life. By faith we enter into sweet communion with Him. As we consider our Great High Priest and focus on Him, we experience that abundant life HIDDEN away in glory with Him within the veil in that heavenly sanctuary, where we receive grace and strength to run the race and where the Vine provides the branch with all he needs to patiently endure. In that place of heavenly communion – a spiritual life hidden away with Christ in heaven, we find grace, strength, refuge, encouragement, comfort, and motivation to continue running the race. Thus, from heaven’s sanctuary, our High Priest nourishes and strengthens us with HIS strength – an endless supply and a source completely HIDDEN to the world, yet it is all we need to run consistently with zeal, zest, and vigor and with fire in the belly. And it is all because when we FOCUS on Christ (when we as branches ABIDE in Him) we are supplied with supernatural power from our Savior enabling us to bear spiritual fruit and to live a crucified, but resurrected life – a victorious life that will be rewarded with golden crowns and a WELL DONE from the Lord Jesus one day. We don’t run uncertainly. We run with our eyes of faith focused squarely on the Savior. We don’t beat the air. We swing focused on the target. Focus is everything.