Lately I feel God focusing more and more on the way I am looking at things. And asking me to share that focus with Him.
Luke 11:34 The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore, when your eye is good, your whole body also is full of light. But when your eye is bad, your body also is full of darkness.
I've read that Scripture dozens of times over the years. Never really absorbing it's full meaning (and I am sure there is a lot still left for me to absorb). But I am realizing more and more how I look at things, the way my mind perceives the events and circumstances of my day is what determines my attitude and my actions, and especially my words. If I am looking at any given moment, whether it is going smoothly or is seemingly another irritating interruption, if I turn my eyes heavenward my perception of that moment will change.
Romans 8:28 And we know that ALL things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
How often have we heard that verse? How often quoted it ourselves and others? How often do we actually live it out as truth? Hmmmmm, there's the kicker, huh?
I read a quote last night in "One Thousand Gifts." It went like this: "You would be very ashamed if you knew what the experiences you call setbacks, upheavals, pointless disturbances, and tedious annoyances really are. You would realize that your complaints about them are nothing more nor less than blasphemies--though that never occurs to you. Nothing happens to you except by the will of God, and yet (God's) beloved children curse it because they do not know it for what it is." Jean-Pierre de Caussade, as quoted in A Guide to Prayer for All God's People.
That is a very thought provoking, heart probing idea. If I truly believe God works ALL things for good, if I really wanted to live that out, and I actually walked as if I trusted His doings in my life, would I not be filled with joy and peace at all times instead of just fleetingly scarce moments of contentment? And that brings it back to the way I am looking at the minutes and moments, the circumstances and happenings of my day. Is my eye dark? Is my perception of events darkening my light?
Luke 11:35-36 Therefore take heed that the light which is in you is not darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, having no part in dark, the whole body will be full of light, as when the bright shining of a lamp gives you light.
And lights were meant to shine. I am meant to shine. Jesus is meant to shine through me. If I am filled with the dark, then I do not fulfill my purpose, God's purpose for me.
Romans 8:29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Can you imagine Jesus walking around like we do?!!!? "Oh, darn, another problem, another interruption. Don't people see I am trying to feed 5000 people here, I can't stop to teach, I can't stop to talk. Oh, my sandal broke, now what. Father why did you let it break now? I have to get to that next village...You mean I have to mediate between these guys again, why don't they just get it already...the first shall be last....I have other things to take care of now....." LOL
In the book, Ann V was mediating a skirmish between 2 of her children when she processed and practiced this looking up. One of them had done something to make her so angry, but in that few moments she was able to change her perspective by they way she looked at the situation. She was able to lay down her anger and pick up the mantle of thanksgiving. She said to herself: "what compels me to name these moment upheavals and annoyances instead of grace and gift? Why derive myself of joy's oxygen?" I don't believe we will enjoy every moment that comes into our lives. Hard job situations, no job situations, sick parents, fighting children, lost children...the list goes on and on, are not going to make us happy. But by looking at them as a gift of God, something in which He can and will make beauty out of can fill us with peace and trust. If everything in my life is from or allowed by my Father, then everything is or has the potential for good in it. Walk in Romans 8:28 and fulfill Romans 8:29.
This has been a long and ongoing God visit for me. I still have a lot of work to do in this area. As always, I am a slow learner and I am ever grateful for my Father's patience.
From 31 Days of Praise by Ruth Warren:
"Father, I am so delighted that you are both loving and sovereign, and that You cause all things to work together for good to those who love You, to those who are called according to Your purpose. So I thank You for each disturbing or humbling situation in my life, for each breaking or cleansing process You are allowing, for each problem or hindrance, for each thing that triggers in me anxiety or anger or pain. And I thank You in advance for each disappointment, each demanding duty, each pressure, each interruption that may arise in the coming hours and days.
In spite of what I think or feel when I get my eyes off You, I choose not to resist my trials as intruders, but to welcome them as friends.....
I rejoice that You plan to enrich and beautify me through each problem, each conflict, each struggle...I'm grateful that You look beyond my superficial desire for a trouble-free life; instead You fulfill my deep-down desire to glorify You, enjoy Your warm fellowship, and become more like Your Son"
"I thank you for the bitter things
They've been a friend to grace,
They've driven me from the paths
of ease.
To storm the secret place."
----Florence White Willett
Thank You Lord, for this new lesson, this new and ongoing visit. Help me to see. I want to see the fullness of You in every moment. To see You hand in each circumstance. I know I will not always understand, but let my light be powered by faith in You. Shine through me Jesus.
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