In recent days, I’ve heard a few teachers say something to the effect that we become what we behold.
Hard stop.
Maybe it’s easy to nod and agree with that statement without much actual thought or response.
Or this thought might cause us to scrunch our faces and wonder if that’s really true.
Or it could challenge us with its truth to actually consider what we behold.
What are we beholding?
One idea comes readily to mind: Our phones. If we scroll regularly through the algorithmic offerings of the world wide web, its images and words are what shape us. For example:
- A steady stream of political panderings raises our anger or anxiety, our stress or cynicism – until we become the spewers of malcontent or a bundle of nerves.
- A regular diet of drama shifts our peace to a salacious need for more drama or dulls our senses completely – until we become the entitled pot-stirrers or numbed-out avoiders.
- A daily regimen of those with ‘more’ than us – more beauty, more money, more ‘love’ – stirs within us deep discontent – until we become so self-loathing or self-centered that we neglect to see all the good in our lives. Because it never feels like enough. We never feel like enough.
And that, my friends, is just one facet of life that we behold. Think about it – we also spend a lot of time looking into mirrors and bank accounts; we obsess over the newest releases of technology and trends; we focus on the opinions of others and our favorite influencer’s ideas…until we become what we are beholding. Greedy. Jealous. People-pleasing.
The Bible helps us look upon this truth about humanity. For instance, we see in Exodus all the times the people of God grumbled against God. They were actually reflecting what they had witnessed and experienced all those years in Egypt.1 They had become like their captors who had complained against their gods. There was no faith, just self-focused fear and self-serving motivations.
Later in Scripture, the connection is a little more obvious. In Revelation 16 God’s angels poured their bowls of judgment upon the earth, and rather than turning to God with repentance, the suffering non-believers cursed God. “Those who worshipped the beast and his image conformed to the image they worshiped.”1 In other words, their behavior became like the beast they had long beheld.
What are we beholding?
Beholding Jesus in the Bible
An honest look at our daily rhythms helps us see that where we spend most of our time and energy is what has the most influence on us. That fact not only convicts me but challenges me to shift my focus, to change how I spend my days, and to be intentional to gaze upon my God – because I long to become more like Jesus!
And I know that I know the best way to become like Jesus is to get to know Him. To look at Him in Scripture. All His words, all His actions are not just prescriptive. They’re descriptive. They give us images and ideas as to how He lived and responded to the life He was given. In doing so, they show us how to live.
But we can zoom out a bit and see that the entirety of God’s Word is meant to guide the direction of our gazes. I think that for too long we’ve thought of Scripture as a list of what not to do when, really, it’s a soul-shaper:
“The Bible is not a book telling us what to believe and how to behave. The Bible is showing us how to behold and who to become. That’s what the worship-led life is all about: learning to behold Jesus and, in beholding Him, becoming like Him.”
Chris Tomlin2
The Word of God is critically important to our development – especially if we will stop reading “it with ourselves in the middle of the frame” and, instead, keep Christ at the center of it.3 Our information-hungry generation tends to come at Bible-reading looking for facts and lists – for quick fixes. We so desire the Word’s application to our lives that we miss the primary point: God.
My friends, picture with me how differently relationships among families and neighbors, churches and countries would function if every Jesus follower would simply behold God within His Word more than anything else the world has to offer.
Beholding God in Worship
Last week we began thinking of worship as entering God’s presence in order to know Him, glorify Him, and adore Him. As such, it would hold true that worship offers us another way to behold our God.
I can go to church and sing the songs, pray the prayers and listen to the sermon. But if the eyes of my heart are focused on my inner to-do list or that argument I had or the overwhelming diagnosis, then I’m not beholding God. Rather, I’m allowing my thoughts to run wild, to focus on my circumstances. What I behold, I become. Fear. Anxiety. Despair.
I’m learning that “taking my thoughts captive” looks more like replacing the distracting, discouraging thoughts for the truths of Scripture (2 Corinthians 10:5). It plays out practically as entering God’s presence through worship by rehearsing everything I know to be true about Him – and pouring all that goodness out to Him. It’s shifting my attention and choosing faith because “faith focuses, even fixates on God–who God is, what God has done, and what God can do.”3 When I enter God’s presence and worship Him, I move my gaze off my stuff and onto my God.
Through such beholding, we respond to God with our dedication, our devotion. The mystery of such wholehearted, beholding-worship is that we are consecrated and transformed. The result of which is our ability to become the demonstration of Christ and His love in the world.
In other words, we become like the One we behold.
Beholding Christ at the Table
One image that can be seen throughout Scripture and makes a regular appearance in our worship services is the table. Like the tables of the Old Testament feasts. Or, the table of Psalm 23 – the one God prepares for us in the presence of our enemies. And, the table of the Lord’s Supper.
It’s no wonder that God regularly asks us to gather at His table – for His purposes and for our good. He invites us to partake in a holy meal because it leads us to stronger faith in Him.
“[Communion] is not just a religious act. It’s the mystical act of actually receiving the body, the person, the presence, the power, the love, the grace, the goodness of Jesus into our physical bodies – by eating and drinking. So that we may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.”
JD Walt4
At the Communion table, we share in Christ’s body. And through the taking-in of the holy elements, the grace of Jesus allows us to see Him through the lens of His sacrifice – to behold Him even more clearly.
“If we come to Christ over and over with this longing and this conviction in our heart: that here he nourishes us by faith, then the Lord’s Supper will be a deep and wonderful act of worship.”
John Piper5
So. As we worship and behold our Savior, we become like Him – but maybe in ways we don’t always anticipate.
“Communion with Jesus means becoming like him. With him we are nailed on the cross, with him we are laid in the tomb, with him we are raised up to accompany lost travelers on their journey. Communion, becoming Christ, leads us to a new realm of being. It ushers us into the Kingdom.”
Henri Nouwen6
On top of all this, as we behold Christ at this holy meal, we’re also meant to think ahead to one more table – the banquet table. The one that Jesus has already gone ahead to prepare for all who believe in Him (John 14:3; Psalm 23:5). The one to which all resurrected, glorified believers will pull up a chair and celebrate the long awaited wedding of the Bridegroom and Bride (Revelation 19:9).
My friends, worship takes us beyond the veil of this world and into the presence of our Father – the One we’re meant to bow before. To behold. When we look to Him more than all the bits of entertainment, than all the world’s beckoning distractions, than all our own disappointments and discouragements, we will become more like Him. Faithful. Loving. Strong.
Beholding Christ and becoming like Him through our abiding-life rhythms not only enable us to navigate our lives with faith but to help others, as well. Our interactions with Christ give us the chance to invite those around us to have a seat at His holy table. As we look ahead to the day of feasting with the family of Christ – when all we’ve ever longed for comes into being – our hope materializes. And for these reasons, we eat the bread and sip from the cup as a means of beholding and becoming like our Savior.
This is worship.
Father God, we bow before You with awe and humility – because we know that all who believe in You, those with unveiled faces and beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into that same image – You! We marvel that as our eyes fix upon You, our hearts align with You and our spirits become one with You. As our minds rehearse the life of your Son, we discover our responses in our own lives begin to look more like His. Lord Jesus, as we look upon that first Supper, where You broke “the bread of presence” and drank “the cup of power,” we see how that meal “foreshadowed what was coming.” We understand how You were working to build the faith of your disciples because You knew what lay ahead. So may that holy meal forever “fill us with faith.” And may we embrace the mystery of Holy Communion – that in partaking of your body and blood we become You.6 May we rejoice in knowing that this holy meal is “a feast eternal here today.”7 Holy Spirit, fill us with a faith that keeps choosing to look to Jesus instead of our phones or our problems. Help us to behold our Savior so that we become more like Him every day. In His name we pray, amen.
(inspired by 2 Corinthians 3:18 ESV; Hebrews 12:2; 1 Corinthians 6:17, 2:16; Romans 8:29; Bristol House’s lyrics from “Presence and Power;” Ephesians 3:16)
Resources: I love sharing with you the books, podcasts, articles, and anything else that has inspired, encouraged, or taught me. These are humble offerings with no expectations.
- 1 – Jen Wilkin in her Revelation^ Bible study — Week Seven, page 107 and in her teaching video.
- 2 – Chris Tomlin in his book, How Great Is Our God^ — in his chapter, BEHOLD, p.80
- 3 – JD Walt in his Wake Up Call post on 7/9/25
- 4 – JD Walt in his Wake Up Call post on 8/12/25, specifically in his commentary (in the audio)
- 5 – John Piper in his article, “The Lord’s Supper as Worship”
- 6 – Henri Nouwen in his book, With Burning Hearts
- 7 – These are lyrics from Bristol House’s song “Presence and Power” — see more in the playlist section below
- I know I have referenced Bristol House’s song, “Presence and Power,” in a recent post, but I just can’t get over how their lyrics once again reflect everything God is revealing in this week’s post. I linked the song itself in the above bullet-point, and it is on our Embrace Worship Spotify playlist — because it is worth another listen. I think this is a song so packed with Scripture and theological goodness that as I deepen my understanding and experience of worship and Communion, its lyrics come to mean more and more to me.
- Just as the Twelve were gathered around your table
Lord, here we stand before You now
To taste of mercy from our wounded Savior
To see His hands, His feet, His brow
The supper to foreshadow what was coming
The meal that’s filling us with faith
The bread of presence and the cup of power
A feast eternal here today!
- Just as the Twelve were gathered around your table
- Each Wednesday I upload a “Teacup” teaching video that carries on the topic here. You can find all the videos on my Facebook Author Page, Instagram, and YouTube.
- Many of you have found me on Substack! Thank you so much! While you’re on Substack, check out the ministry I’m blessed to be part of, the Devoted Collective. And, if you’d rather listen to these weekly posts, you can do so on Substack — it’s easy to see and use the audio bar across the top of each post.
- My monthly newsletter, The Abiding Life, goes to email inboxes the first week of each month to those who have subscribed on my website. I also post them on Substack. My most recent edition can be found there, and you can subscribe for future newsletters on Substack, here.
Rhythms: As my newsletter’s title infers, we seek to develop an abiding life in this space — a place where we can get informed but also be transformed as we learn to abide in God’s presence throughout our days. I like to think that developing rhythms is one way to aid us in our desire to become more Christlike. These next three months we’re focusing on the rhythm of worship (surprise!).
- Each week we ‘highlight’ and ‘tab’ a section in our Prayer Bibles. This week we focus on the most specific verses on beholding and becoming, 2 Corinthians 3:16-18. Recall that this summer we’re marking significant passages about the various facets of worship so that we can find them easily, put them to memory, and apply them in our abiding lives. These are words we can pray with a little personalization. They can also become words of reverence-filled worship. In this week’s passage, the ESV actually employs the word “beholding” in verse eighteen, which is the closest translation to the Greek word — which connotes the idea of beholding something as in a mirror. Word nerd that I am, I think this is so cool because that’s what we want to do. We want to look upon Jesus then reflect Him to the world!! In the NLT, 2 Corinthians 3:16-18 actually says we “see and reflect” Jesus:
“But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.” - We’re all called to share the truths about the work of Jesus. One way you can do that is by sharing this site and telling others your own stories of faith experiences. Believe it or not, we worship God each time we share our stories of faith! We use our whole selves to tell about our holy God!!
Featured Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash. “All the Bits and Pieces” photo by Aleksandra Sapozhnikova on Unsplash.
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