God Speaking

But my eyes are fixed on you, O Sovereign Lord; in you I take refuge- do not give me over to death.”

(Psalm 141:8)

This last week end, our family had an exciting time welcoming an Australian family who were visiting Canada for the first time. They had obviously put a lot of effort into planning a holiday that included all the “must see” areas of our beautiful Vancouver and surroundings and wasted no time in exploring all they wanted to see, nothing was going to stop them not even a little jet lag. When we caught up with them their eyes were shining with excitement and immediately shared all the amazing things they had done in one day, not even letting a little rain deter them from walking in the trees, crossing a suspension bridge over a deep gorge, but best of all seeing snow for the first time and what was more having it snow while they were on the mountain.

While we were listening to our visitors, their enthusiasm was contagious and as they described the day, even though the sites were very familiar to us, they took on a new freshness and seemed to come alive, we began to enjoy them as if we too were seeing them for the first time, we were seeing them through fresh eyes.

Scripture has a lot to say about our eyes and the importance of us never allowing them to become glazed over with anything that may stop us seeing the freshness of the Gospel. Often when we begin to first walk with the Lord, just like our visitors, everything is so exciting, our thoughts are centred on him, we long to spend more time absorbing scripture, we value every lesson we learn, worship becomes a beautiful time of sharing our love with him, but sometimes distractions creep into our lives, we begin to focus on earthly problems, on activities that rob us of time with the Lord, that is when we need to listen to the writer of Hebrews;

“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2)

The psalmists also saw the need to never lose sight of the Lord knowing that snares to a loving relationship were always ready to trap them into losing sight of the great Deliverer;

“My eyes are ever on the Lord, for only he will release my feet from the snare.” (Psalm 25:15)

Any earthly relationship can lose its freshness and sadly we see this so often in marriages where one partner ceases to focus on loving the other. Our relationship with the Heavenly Father is far different, he never loses sight of us, his love is always totally focused on us and never changes, so the door is always open for us to renew and refresh our love at any given moment. Humbly acknowledging we need refreshing will bring forth showers of blessings.

Perhaps the most important part of us that needs constant refreshing is our hearts and one of my favourite hymns expresses this so beautifully.

Open the eyes of my heart, Lord

Open the eyes of my heart, Lord

I want to see You.

I want to see You.