The Power of Keeping our Eyes on God

By Norma Miller

October 30, 2015

Isaiah 51:11-16  states: Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return,
and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away. I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass; and forgettest the Lord thy maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor? 

The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed, and that he should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail. But I am the Lord thy God, that divided the sea, whose waves roared: the Lord of hosts is his name. And I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people.

The Lord highlighted these verses to me recently, and with good reason. I have been afraid of what people will do to me. People! HE is my Maker. He set the foundations of the earth in place. He is the One I should fear, and not mere mortals.

Now, I'm not talking about being afraid that someone is going to hurt me, I'm talking about how blind we as humans can be to the thoughts and feelings of others. The interesting thing is that as we focus on how we feel as we are being unjustly treated, our anger and fear causes us to mistreat them, and we are completely blind to it.

Sometimes a lot of this could be avoided if we would truly fear the Lord and see His amazing power and authority. Beyond that, when we are focused on Him and His might, these things we go through pale in comparison. What's more, the Lord often has to allow us to experience these things so we will become desperate enough to come to Him and see the truth. This is a really rough reality for me, because my flesh wants to focus on how much it hurts, and that pain really does matter to God. His heart weeps with ours when we are hurting. My point is that our focus on our hurt rather than using our spirit-man to steer our eyes toward Jesus and His power actually ends up causing more pain to our own hearts.

The facts are still facts: someone is doing something that causes you pain; life is dealing you something you don't like. That's still true. It still matters to you and to God, but your focus is different. It is on God and His power, rather than the circumstances. It seems God has to keep bringing me back to this, because I still get derailed so easily. Hopefully, you've already learned this long ago, but I'm hoping that my sharing it will help others on their journey, and spare them the agony of learning it the hard way.

I would like to add that I believe that as we turn our eyes back to the Father, our Maker, and to His goodness, power, and might, I believe He is faithful, and will do as He says in the verses above. He will fill our hearts with joy and gladness, and put a song on our lips. He WILL come through for us, but our minds need to be 'stayed' on Him, rather than questioning Him for allowing our tribulations.

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