Thursday: See Jesus
Daily Lesson for Thursday 11th of June 2026
Have you ever wished you could see Jesus when you feel discouraged? Picture yourself in this dream.
“I seemed to be sitting in abject despair, with my face in my hands, reflecting like this: If Jesus were upon earth, I would go to Him, throw myself at His feet, and tell Him all my sufferings. He would not turn away from me, He would have mercy upon me, and I should love and serve Him always. Just then the door opened, and a person of beautiful form and countenance entered. He looked upon me pityingly and said: ‘Do you wish to see Jesus? He is here and you can see Him if you desire to do so. Take everything you possess and follow me.’
Image © Pacific Press at Goodsalt.com
“I heard this with unspeakable joy, and gladly gathered up all my little possessions, every treasured trinket, and followed my guide. He led me to a steep and apparently frail stairway. As I commenced to ascend the steps, he cautioned me to keep my eyes fixed upward, lest I should grow dizzy and fall. Many others who were climbing up the steep ascent fell before gaining the top.
“Finally we reached the last step and stood before the door. Here my guide directed me to leave all the things that I had brought with me. I cheerfully laid them down; he then opened the door and bade me enter. In a moment I stood before Jesus. There was no mistaking that beautiful countenance. Such a radiant expression of benevolence and majesty could belong to no other. As His gaze rested upon me, I knew at once that He was acquainted with every circumstance of my life and all my inner thoughts and feelings.
“I tried to shield myself from His gaze, feeling unable to endure His searching eyes, but He drew near with a smile, and, laying His hand upon my head, said: ‘Fear not.’ The sound of His sweet voice thrilled my heart with a happiness it had never before experienced. I was too joyful to utter a word, but, overcome with ineffable happiness, sank prostrate at His feet. While I was lying helpless there, scenes of beauty and glory passed before me, and I seemed to have reached the safety and peace of heaven. At length my strength returned, and I arose. The loving eyes of Jesus were still upon me, and His smile filled my soul with gladness. His presence filled me with holy reverence and an inexpressible love. . . .
“This dream gave me hope . . . [and] faith. . . . And the beauty and simplicity of trusting in God began to dawn upon my benighted soul.”—Ellen G. White, Early Writings, Pages 79–81.
Amid life’s setbacks, we need to focus on Jesus and what He reveals about God’s love for us.
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What hope can you take for yourself, right now, from what is written in Romans 8:18,28? |
My father used to tell us kids when we had a hard time at school, that “It is all part of the toughening up process!” Dad was a returned soldier from World War II and he told us about basic training where they had to do route marches and sleep in their overcoats in the rain. He thought we had it easy compared to army training. He taught us not to complain or blame others when things were tough.
I remembered that lesson when I went to College. I was a young naive student in the dorms. The other students short-sheeted my bed one night and filled the sheet with a mixture of crumbled cereal (Weet-bix) and honey. I was incensed and immediately went to the Boys Dean to complain. He told me to “cool it” and said that because I had reacted, the boys would do it again and again, just to get a rise out of me. He told me the best response was to ignore it. The next night, they short-sheeted my bed again and I took his advice. Years later, when some of those young men were my good friends, they told me that they had waited for hours that night with buckets of water to douse me, and I never showed, much to their disappointment.
It was all part of the toughening up process for life and I am thankful for good advice from wise people who helped my understand that reacting to personal challenges was unproductive.
I think there is an application in our spiritual lives too. As this week’s lesson has shown, our lives are not always a walk in the park. We need to develop the wisdom of spiritual resilience.
Paul knew what suffering was but he did not treat it as a burden. He wrote the book of Philippians while he was in prison, yet he mentions “joy and rejoice” over a dozen times in that epistle. He was not just tough enough to survive, he rejoiced in his setbacks.
Paul goes on describing other personal setbacks, but he concludes with:
Paul’s spiritual “toughening up” was not in his own strength and he used his experience to inspire us.
I was touched by the Holy Spirit while reading your blog. My Father in heaven has been helping me with this, and your blessed blog has given me an even clearer picture of how this all fits into the Lord’s way. What I love about this is how in the Spirit I don’t have to fight my flesh who would get upset over it. Where instead I’m in the Spirit living in peace.
What a beautiful and powerful reminder that suffering of “rejoicing in suffering”. I got The Message to my delinquent teen clients and it’s making a difference 🙂
Maurice Ashton,
Ty for this story about your college days.
Would you give the same advice about a short-sheeted bed to a young man in college in 2026 as the Boys’ Dean gave to you?
When we look at Jesus, we choose faith over fear, we choose hope over despair, we choose love over hate, we choose forgiveness over revenge, and we choose joy over worry. For the Bible says, “Rejoice in the Lord, and again, I say, rejoice.” The Bible also says, “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” Hebrews 12:2 encourages us to be “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.” When we keep our eyes on Jesus, He gives us the strength, perspective, and victory we need for every season of life. Jesus wants to help us win. Jesus gives us opportunities in every battle, conflict, and tension to win if only we can see Him in the picture. In the battle for our minds, our time, our families, our churches, even our ministries, Jesus is ever present and at work; we only need to see and focus on Him. Disappointment, rejection, and loss of direction or control can bring discouragement. If we learn to lean on and trust Jesus, our faith can deepen. I’m reminded of 2 Corinthians 10:4: “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds,” and give us true comebacks.
Moses failed to see Jesus and let anger control his life; he killed an Egyptian. As a result, he spent forty years on the backside of the wilderness in what was God’s anger management program. When Moses chose to see Jesus, God used him to crush Pharaoh and lead Israel out of Egypt—a true and real comeback. Moses went from a shepherd of sheep to a leader of more than a million people in just a few days. Think of the enormity of that adjustment. But it took him forty years of God equipping him for the journey and Moses deciding to look at the Savior. Rahab, a prostitute, served Joshua and Caleb, and she ended up being listed in the lineage of Jesus Christ. We must stop beating ourselves up over our past failures and look at Jesus so that we can live for Him in the increasing complexity and mess of this life. When we choose to see Jesus rather than our mistakes, limitations, or circumstances, we discover that He is still writing our story and preparing us for the comeback He has planned.
I absolutely love what you said. I work with delinquent teens and those that are believers – I can totally see how this would shift their mindset to not be fixated on their past, not fixated that they have to be in placement and hate it – but see it from the this perspective. Amazing.
Could there be any meaning in human life on earth without the promise of eternal life?
Without eternity, human life appears to be tragic and incomplete. “Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.” (Ecclesiastes 1:2 ,KJV). Without eternity, our deepest longing and sweetest desire to see Jesus is simply the saddest emptiness. If seeing Jesus is not my blessed hope, then my life is not worth living. God has planted an element of eternity in each human being. “He hath made everything beautiful in his time: also he hath set eternity in their heart…” (Ecclesiastes 3:11, NKJV). The human crucibles that we go through with each passing moment make eternity more desirable and extremely appealing. “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” (2 Corinthians 4:17, KJV).
Seeing Jesus gives us hope beyond the grave. This gives strength to smile at death because it will not have the final say in our lives. Praise God, hallelujah, to the Lamb of God, in whom we have eternal hope. “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.” (1 Corinthians 15:19, KJV). This hope is not simply life after death, a reunion with Jesus Christ. When setbacks set in, I have the courage and the strength to keep going till I see Jesus face to face. Yes, Lord Jesus, please come quickly.
“Because I live, ye shall live also.” (John 14:19).
There is a saying, “whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” It’s definitely true. Muscle is built through progressive resistance. Spiritual muscle is built the same way. Romans 8:18,28 are so true and we have to remind ourselves at times that this adversity, time of sorrow, disappointment, or discouragement won’t last forever, though they seem as though they will. As much as my humanity hates these things they are part of my spiritual body building routine. They are nothing compared to what heaven has in store for those that persevere in the trying of their faith and love for the Lord. 1 Cor. 2:9
God can and does take these temporary trials and use them for our eternal benefit. He works all the bad things that we may experience in our lives to bring good out of them, both here and hereafter. It is this knowledge and belief that should give us hope when things seem hopeless. It is where we find the strength to press on, in Jesus’s name.
Press On, Selah
The song that you suggested was beautiful. Thank you for sharing this.
Sometimes, the duties of daily work seem to steal all the precious moments I could spend gazing upon the presence of my Savior. May His eyes continue to search for me, and His wonderful mercy rectify my emotions and reasons!
God is in control working behind the scenes.
Amen!
Amen, This is become one of my favorite hymns (#606 in the SDA Hymnal)- “Once to Every Man and Nation” Since I heard the Season One Lineage episode where Adam Ramdin tells the story of Marie Durand who rather than say “RECANT”, she etched in stone “RESIST”
God bless all who love and follow the Lamb whither so ever He goes
Amid life’s setbacks, trials, and disappointments, our greatest need is not merely an explanation for our suffering but a clearer vision of Jesus. Circumstances can easily cause us to question God’s love, wisdom, or presence. Yet Jesus is God’s definitive answer to every doubt about His character.
By now we know that to see Jesus is to spend time in His word, prayer, musing, meditation, and pondering with picture in our minds of us sitting at the feet of Jesus, thinking oh what words I hear Him say. Happy place so dear, so precious, it finds me there each day. I look upon the past and find He has been so good to me. The thoughts stimulate me to meet Him face to face every day.