For my daily readings I use the CWR booklet ‘Inspiring Women Every Day’ which is written by women for women. The title for the month of June was ‘Hope in the waiting’ exploring what it means to walk as a Christian holding on to hope, and showing that whatever our circumstances we can place our trust in God, and that there is value to be found in times of waiting.
The writer, Karen Case-Green, illustrated her points by following the life of Abraham on the weekdays and at the weekend some of the Psalms (the Psalms of Ascents – Psalms 120-134).
The first weekend was Psalm 123v1-4 and was titled ‘Watch me’. She gave an illustration:
‘Our rescue dog is now a sedate gentleman, but he was wild as a puppy, He could knock a toddler flying just by wagging his tale and chewing habits led to two trips to the vet to have tennis balls surgically removed!
We would have been lost without our dog trainer. One exercise that she insisted on was ‘Watch me’. You took the dog’s head, stared deep into their eyes and said, ‘Watch me’. The dog had to keep their eyes on you, never flickering for a moment. If they took their eyes off you, you’d say firmly, ‘Watch me’ and their gaze returned. It was an exercise in submission- and it worked!
When God called Abraham to leave Ur and to follow Him wherever He took him, he had to keep his eyes firmly on God. God gave him amazing promises (Genesis 12v1-3) which he never saw the fulfilment of in his own lifetime. By faith he kept his eyes fixed on God even when called to sacrifice Isaac, trusting God’s promises to him (Genesis 22).
There are two occasions when Abraham (in my opinion, but maybe they hit me more as a woman!) took his eyes off God and firmly onto himself in the most jaw-droppingly awful way (Genesis 12v10-20, 20v1-17). Twice he allows Sarah, his wife, to be handed over to other men in order to save his own skin.
The Psalms of Ascents also encourage us in ‘Watch me’ humility. As God’s servants we need to be attentive to our master’s every move. We watch the Lord, He alone can bring mercy.
There is no other who is more worth ‘watching’, keeping our gaze firmly fixed on Jesus’ face. Hebrews 12v2,3 tells us ‘Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith……so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.’
When we take our eyes off Jesus we get distracted and try to live our lives in our own strength which is exhausting and stressful. When we turn to Him, fix our eyes on Him, give control of our lives back to Him, we find joy and fruitfulness.
A song which speaks of this is ‘Turn your eyes upon Jesus’. The chorus says: “Jesus, to you we lift our eyes, Jesus our glory and our prize, we adore you, behold you, our Saviour ever true. Oh Jesus, we turn our eyes to you.”
Hilary
Leave a Reply