Superficial Focus

By Morgan Butcher in Deep Thoughts in Prayer in Uprising on 5/3/10

‘Behold, as the eye of servants look to the hand of their masters… so our eyes look to the Lord our God..’ -Psalm 123.2

You ever had those days where you read your Bible and have no idea what the author is talking about?  I hate that… I wind up distracted the entire day, trying to figure out what the heck I read!  This was thankfully a scripture that i understood, and it was one of those that spoke loud to me.

This verse is a descripton of total reliance on God.  Just as the eyes of a servant are affixed on his master, our eyes should be directed to and focus on God.  This is how knowledge of His demeanor is gained and how God reveals Himself to us.  Our spiritual strength starts to fade when we stop setting our gaze to Him.  Our stamina is drained, not because of external problems the world throws at us, but because of problems in our thinking.  We find ourselves wrongfully thinking, “I suppose I’ve been stretching myself a little too much, standing too tall and trying to look like God instead of being an ordinary humble person.”  We have to realize that no effort can be too high.

I once saw a friend of mine start thinking with this mind set.  He came into a crisis in his life, stood up for God, and knew he had done the right thing in that circumstance.  And then weeks later, he slowly came to the conclusion—“Well, maybe what I did showed too much pride or was superficial.  Was I taking a stand a bit too high for me?”  Have you ever found yourself thinking this way?  Being as humble as possible… I know I have.  Your ‘rational’ friends will say, “Dont be silly.  We knew when you first talked about this ‘new life’ this ‘spiritual awakening’ that it was a passing impulse, that you could’nt hold up under the strain.  And anyway, God doesn’t expect you to endure.”

And usually we respond by saying something along the lines of, “Well, I suppose I was expecting too much.”  Now that sounds humble to say, but i realized that there is a deep underlying meaning to that statement.  When we say things like that it means our reliance on God is GONE, and your now relying on worldly opinion.  And the real danger comes when, no longer relying on God, we neglect to focus our eyes on Him.  Only when God brings a sudden stop will we realize that we have been the loser.

So i say it all for this.  When there is a spiritual drain in your life, correct it immediatly.  Realize that something has been coming between you and God, and change it before you neglect to focus on Him.  Before we fall into a superficial gaze, staring straight into the opinions of the world instead of the calling of our God.

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