KEEP YOUR SIGHT ON GOD

        

        There are many uses of the word "sight" in Scripture. There is the biological sense of vision. The phrase "in God's sight" is loaded with concepts such as God's view, God's perspective, God's knowledge-of or God's presence. Then there is living by faith not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7) yet if we keep our sight set on God, life tends to go as it should.

        However, do we live as though God's gaze or sight is everywhere? There is nothing that shocks or surprises God. There is not anywhere God does not want believers to be holy and blameless before Him. Paul speaks to the omnipresence of God, especially with Christians and uses the word "sight" to convey that idea when he says,

• "For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight." (Ephesians 1:4)

        If God can see you and God is everywhere, especially close to His children who He chose before the creation of the world, then Christians should align themselves with this original directive to be set apart for God (holy) and filled with integrity before God (blameless).

        Knowing to keep our eyes fixed on God's Word everyday is different from keeping our eyes there. With so many options the world, our flesh and the enemy presents to us, it is no surprise our eyes wander. 

        The second line of "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus" has the key - "look FULL into His wonderful face". Full here implies total devotion, wholeheartedness, total attention and utter captivation. The word is likened to a horse with blinders, whose vision is full of nothing but the face of the owner. 

        Moses experienced this blinder effect while beholding the fullness of God in the cleft of a rock.

"Then Moses said, 'Now show me your glory.'

And the Lord said, 'I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But,' he said, 'you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.'

Then the Lord said, 'There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.'" (Exodus 33:18-23)

        Thankfully, the believer can know and focus on Father God's face ever since sending His Son, Christ Jesus, in the flesh. After Jesus declared He is the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father expect through Him - Philip (bless his heart) asks a question that surely makes Jesus slap His hand on His forehead.

"Philip said, 'Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.'

Jesus answered: 'Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?'" (John 14:8-9)

        Since Jesus has ascended to the right hand of Father God, the Holy Spirit is present in the lives of believers to teach them all things and remind them of Christ's words. Seeing God merely means taking a nature walk every now and then and being obedient in the love-commands of Christ toward everyone  - 

"For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse." (Rom. 1:20)

        The everyday behavior of believers in Christ should be found as reflecting Jesus, the focus of their lives. Do you want to live a healthy life in all aspects? Guard your eyes. This is what Jesus says. 

• "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!" (Matthew 6:22-23)

        Society has deemed the eyes - the windows of the soul. Jesus has declared the eyes as "the lamp of the body"! They are so important and telling that Jesus says your whole body depends upon what you are viewing, watching or feeding your eyes.

        One of the chastisements of Christ, in the letter to the church in Laodicea was of spiritual blindness (Rev 3:17-18). The cure that Christ told them to use was salve, not of the worldly kind that the city of Laodicea was known for but the spiritual kind that Jesus offers for their blindness. 

        I encourage my fellow Christians, if you need some Holy Spirit salve to regain your Christ-like sight, then pray now. If you are interested in having a healthy body and showing His light through your life and eyes then pray for a Cleft of The Rock experience like Moses. If you desire to be set apart for God and characterized as a man or woman of integrity, then Keep Your Sight On God or as the writer of Hebrews says, "fix your eyes on Jesus, the author (or pioneer) and finisher (or perfecter) of our faith" (Hebrews 12:2).