Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus

I woke up singing a song this morning that I haven’t sang in many years.  It’s a simple song but it definitely a powerful song called “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus.”

Turn your eyes upon Jesus

Look full in His wonderful face And the things of Earth will grow strangely dim

(By Helen Lemmel - https://youtu.be/czxd5oa-gi0?t=28)

This older hymn has many verses is starting to get a resurgence in popularity again right now in many churches.

The author and composer of this hymn, Helen H. Lemmel, relates that one day, in 1918, a missionary friend gave her a tract entitled “Focused.” The pamphlet contained these words: “So then, turn your eyes upon Him, look full into His face and you will find that the things of earth will acquire a strange new dimness. “

These words made a deep impression upon Helen Lemmel that she could not dismiss them from her mind. She recalls this experience following the reading of that tract: “Suddenly, as if commanded to stop and listen, I stood still, and singing in my soul and spirit was the chorus, with not one conscious moment of putting word to word to make rhyme, or note to note to make melody. The verses were written the same week, after the usual manner of composition, but none the less dictated by the Holy Spirit.”

The hymn was first published, in 1918, in the form of a pamphlet in London, England. It made its way to the United States, in 1924 and has seen its popularity rise in many circles.

Helen studied vocal music and married a rich European.  Her husband left her because she was blind.  She was alone and unable to write down her music.  God continued to use her even through her pain and loneliness.  She wrote 500 hymns in her lifetime.

Helen Howarth Lemmel was born on November 14, 1864 and lived for 97 years as an author of many hymns and poems.

Think about that – a person who was blind writes a song about turning our eyes upon Jesus.  That… we would turn our focus and attention to the one who is able to get us through anything that we face in our lifetime.

I don’t know who this is for today but I feel an urgency that there is someone who is reading this that needs to be reminded about where your focus should be.  Whatever you’re going through – God is with you today.

Turn your eyes to Jesus.

“I’ve seen the face of Jesus… He smiled in love on me;
It filled my heart with rapture, my soul with ecstasy.
The scars of deepest anguish … were lost in glory bright;
I’ve seen the face of Jesus … it was a wondrous sight!
Oh, glorious face of beauty, Oh gentle touch of care;
If here it is so blessed, what will it be up there?”