Spiritual Eyes

As a little girl, I remember peering out into the charcoal black of the night. The moon was covered by clouds and the earth was blanketed in overwhelming darkness. But off in the far distance my eyes caught a faint glimmer of light. With every minute the floating light became brighter as it weaved its way closer and closer. The identity of the individual holding the light, was unknown to me, but as the light passed by my window, I was full of wonder. And just as the spark of light had come, it continued it's journey down the unknown jungle path.

Our journey with the Lord is much like this, we can not see anything but one step in front of us. That has caused much anxiety in my life, however God designed our lives on this earth to be like this for a specific reason. Without an unknown future, we would never learn to give up the rightful control to our loving Father. We must be willing to completely surrender to the overwhelming black of our future, as we learn to entrust it to our Perfect Shepherd. As I meditate on this, I realize that the way we should be living is with our spiritual eyes open. So how do we bring the spiritual elements into focus, and allow the physical distractions to become blurry? We need to pray as Paul did for the church in Ephesus:

"I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe..." (Eph. 1:16-9)

 We live in a world riddled with distractions. Every where we turn there are new shiny objects to become enamored by. And do not lie to yourself and say that you are above the distractions of this age. All of us, whether we will admit it or not, are living on this spinning orb, that is turning at a rapid speed (around a 1000 miles per our, according to google). And earth's residents (you and I) are tempted to move at this chaotic speed as well! But what if we just slowed down today? It is possible to just be still and silent. It is extremely difficult but possible, and oh so beneficial. For when we are still and quiet, that is when we remember that God is in control. He has our spinning orb in His hands, just as He holds you and me in His hands. 

My day to day is filled with excuses. I have an excuse for everything. Oh, I can't do that, because I already have this going on. Oh, I can't do that because I am too tired. And oh, the reason I did that is because....Well. Enough! I have become extremely fed up with all of my excuses, maybe because I caught a glimpse of the important pile of undone things that is growing way too high! Or maybe because I realize how short this life is. Listen, everyone of us only has this one shot at our lives, and none of us know how many more days we will be given. So, "teach me to number my days, O Lord, that I may gain a heart of wisdom" (Psa. 90:12). If we are quiet, we will begin to hear the Spirit's voice, and begin to feel the prods and nudges. I believe the excuses will fall away, and we will begin to accomplish some of the valuable things that the Spirit is giving us to do! 

Let's not be like the stubborn and stiff-necked people that the prophets of old spoke of! Let's instead, ask God, like David did, to incline our hearts to Him. "Incline my heart to Your testimonies, and not to selfish gain! Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me Life in Your ways" (Psa. 119:36-7) To incline means to bow or bend, so let's dash all those excuses we are so habitually prone to make, and bow our hearts to the Maker today.