Fix Your Eyes on Jesus

I love to bird watch.  I was recently given a birdhouse and we already have a wren couple building a cozy home for their soon-to-be-hatched babies.   Sweet!

As Joe and I have been watching our little wren couple, we noticed another bird…a beautiful goldfinch.  He has been frantically flying back and forth from a little tree by our deck to every window on the back of our house.  He flies to each window, perches on the sill and knocks at his reflection over and over again.  Joe thinks he’s just “out of his little birdie mind”…I guess we’ll never really know what’s wrong with him, but I have a more romantic thought:  I think he’s looking for another goldfinch so that he too, like the father wren, can build a home and have a family.  I think he sees his reflection and thinks it’s another finch!  But that “finch” is not responding to his advances!!  THINGS ARE JUST NOT AS THEY APPEAR FOR OUR LITTLE BIRD.

Sometimes life is like that, isn’t it?   The Word of God tells us that we “see through a glass darkly” – things are just not always what they appear. We make our plans, even set up goals, and run here and there to make those plans happen.  But very often the things we hoped for are not within reach – something stands in the way.

Our little finch was looking in all the wrong places for that which would fulfill his dream.  The windows were in his way.  Where are you looking to fulfill your dreams, plans and goals?  What are you chasing that is in the way?   God’s Word, the Bible tells us that we are to “fix our eyes on Jesus”.  Do you believe God’s Word?  When you feel you’ve lost your way, do you “knock” at Christ’s door by searching His Word for direction? 

Proverbs 3:5-7 gives us three things to remember in those times that we are not seeing clearly:

1.      “Trust in the Lord with all your heart”

2.     “Lean not on your own understanding”

3.     “in all your ways submit to Him”

The result:  “He will make your paths straight”

It’s a simple message – with a scripture that everyone seems to know.  But let me ask you:  Can you trust the Lord with all your heart?  Are you “leaning on” your own understanding?   Are you submitted to Him, obeying His Word?  Do you KNOW His Word? 

How can we trust in, lean on, or submit to someone with whom we are not familiar?  We can’t.  Unless we spend time in the true presence of Christ in prayer and meditation on His Word, we cannot expect our paths to be “straight”.

So, what’s the “word on the Word” today?  James sums it up for us…

James 1:22-25 “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves.  Do what it says.  Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.  But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it - not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it - they will be blessed in what they do.”

I wonder if our little goldfinch keeps forgetting that the reflection in the “mirror” of the window is not responding, and so he keeps going back to it over and over again.  How about you?  Are you looking “intently” to God’s law that will give you freedom and blessing? 

I urge you today, look to Christ and hear & obey His Word.  YOU’LL BE BLESSED IN WHAT YOU DO!