Come Walk With Me (Part 2: See)
Jeremiah 6:16
Thus saith the Lord, stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, we will not walk therein.
In last week's Thursday Night's Devotions (Click here if you missed it), we talked about how God wants us to stand when we come to a crossroad in our life. As you know standing is not easy to do, and we cannot do it by ourselves, but only through God who strengthens us. Furthermore, it is his strength and his armor that allows us to remain strong and not lose our footing. However, in this verse God told us to do more than just stand, He said to....
"See"
When I was a child I loved to play a game when my family was asleep and the house was quiet. I would close my eyes and pretend I was blind. I would try to walk through the house and try not to bump into anything. Now as an adult (*ahem*), I sometimes play this game as I travel from my living room to my bed at night. It is a lot harder now because instead of being the child who put the toys on the floor, I am now the parent trying to navigate my children's toys.
However, after all these years of doing this, I have never managed to completely keep my eyes closed. I have always had to open my eyes and check my surroundings to make sure I knew where I was at. If there is anything this childish game has taught me, it is the fact that I am blessed to have my sight.
Unfortunately, our spiritual lives are not a child's game and spiritual blindness is a real problem for people. Just like physical sight, there are different ways in which we may lose our spiritual vision. First we may be spiritually born in blind ignorance because we were simply not taught about God and what he can do for us. Second, we may have become spiritually blinded as we have grown older and weaker in our spiritual minds and bodies. Third, we may be spiritually blind because we have just decided to close our eyes to our surroundings. There is a lot more we can speak on these types of blindness, but I will not today. Just know this, spiritual blindness is crippling to our progress in Christ.
See The Dangers That Beset Us
One of the first reasons God wants us to see is because we need to be aware of our surroundings and the dangers that await. This sounds like an easy task at first, but in all truth and honesty it is not. How often have you physically stepped in a pothole, on an uneven side-walk, or even on a rock and lost your balance?
You may have thought that where you were walking was safe and straight, but there was just this one spot you did not see. It was so minor, you missed it, but your toe didn't. You may not have fallen down, but it caused you to stumble. It is even quite possible that after you stumbled, you looked back to see what caused it, and could not.
This is the same thing with us spiritually. The ground we walk on in this life is not sound, it may seem that it is, but there is something waiting, hiding in your path. What could be in your path?
Is it self-loathing, over indulgence, bitterness, bigotry, prejudice, pride, self-pity, loneliness, financially broke, financially wealthy, sickness, good health, family and friends? Whatever it is, it is there and you need to see it, or you will fall. So how do we do avoid these pit falls?
Proverbs 3: 5-6
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
Truth be told, this is such a simple solution, but quite often is neglected by people. However, there is one more key part to avoid these pit falls.
Psalm 119:105
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
Take the light of the word with you, let it light up your way so that you can see what is coming. Now if you can trust God and his word you should easily see the problems that may come your way. However, let us be honest, not all stumbling blocks are small and surmountable. Sometimes our problems may not be something that we can avoid, but must face head on. It is at these times we need to "see" that God has things under control.
See That God Is In Control
In 2 Kings chapter 6 we read that Syria was at war with Israel. Syria's armies would lay traps throughout the land in order to destroy Israel. However, Elisha the prophet, was a man that God had called to assist the nation of Israel during this time. As I said, the Syrian armies would lay traps in secret, but understand this, nothing is secret to God.
God himself would tell Elisha of Syria's battle plans! After the plans were revealed to Elisha, he would then tell the King of Israel. Once Israel knew of Syria's plans, the Israelite armies were able to circumvent anything and everything the Syria tried to do.
Later, the King of Syria began to question how his battle plans were being found by the Israelites. The Syrian King learned that it was Elisha who was diverging plans to Israel. As expected the King of Syria did not like that his battle plans were being told by the prophet, and wanted Elisha dead.
So the King of Syria ordered an army to find Elisha and kill him. The army eventually found Elisha and in the cover of night surrounded the town in which Elisha was currently staying. The next morning Elisha's servant woke to the sight of the Syrian army surrounding the city and feared for his and Elisha's life. He asked Elisha what were they to do, how were they to get out of the city? How were they to escape this army that was sent to kill them? Elisha did the following:
2 Kings 6:16-17
And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.
And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.
Elisha, unfazed by the Syrian army that wanted to take his life, simply asked God to open his servant's spiritual eyes. God did so and what the servant saw, was the Army Of God encamped about the Syrian army. The Syrian army had thought they surrounded Elisha, but in reality they had unknowingly marched in to the middle of God's Camp. Elisha had nothing to fear, nor did his servant, because God had everything under control.
As our troubles and trials beset us on every hand, and we don't see a way out; God has already opened a way for us. Pray that God opens our eyes to see that we have his angels, his ministers, his people, his army camped about us and protecting us. Let not our eyes see only the problem, but let our eyes see the solution, which is God.
Stand and See
The simple truth is this our church, our denomination, our family, our friends, and our own lives are at a crossroad. We must make a choice in what direction to go. In order to do this, we must first stand and be not ashamed of the gospel. Once we stand we must see. We must see what problems we will encounter and how to avoid them. Then, more important, we must see that God has things under control.
If we can do this, we can do the next step. Ask.
Good Lord willing we will be discussing this next week. If you have any comments or would like to share something please do so. I would love to hear from you.
