Lessons in Vision, Part Three
With my eyes tightly closed, I stood perfectly still and shouted, “Marco!”
Their response came immediately, “Polo!”
“Marco!!” I repeated.“Polo!” THEY repeated.
I slowly walked forward, through the waist deep water, with my arms held straight out in front of me. From different directions around me I heard: giggles, whispers, and small splashes of the pool water… Where were they?
I am SO glad that we do not need to blindly search for God, like in that Marco Polo game! There are so many promises in the Bible that God is with us always, that He will never leave us, and that He will be found by us when we seek Him.
Those promises are always a huge comfort to read and remember!
Recently though, I was reminded of the story from Luke 24:13-35. It is about two followers of Jesus, who are walking along the road to Emmaus, just a couple days after Jesus was crucified on the cross. Verses 15 and 16 say that when they were talking about the events of the past couple days, “Jesus Himself came up and walked along with them. But God kept them from recognizing Him.”
So, sometimes, we do not recognize Jesus, even though He is right there with us!
To be completely honest with you, this is something I am recently walking through, in my desire to be more involved in world missions ~ my head KNOWS that God is still working in my life. But, I seem to be in a holding pattern, and find myself wishing God would just tell me which path He wants to walk along with me. It FEELS like I am playing “Marco Polo” with God ~ but, feelings lie!!!
What about you? Are you searching for God in the midst of it all? Have you been struggling through something? Are you calling to Him while wondering, “God, where are you?”
Two questions we need to ask are:
1. How often is Jesus in the midst of it all, in my life, and yet I do not recognize Him?
2. Am I looking FOR Him and TO Him in the midst of it all?
He is not seen in a downwards vision!
We will not see Christ if we are looking down in discouragement! Every day, we need to decide to look UP! This means we need to focus on our blessings and depend fully on His help! He is asking, “Are you going to quit, or are you going to trust me?” It is our responsibility to make the CHOICE to look up!
He is not seen in a backwards vision!
Some of us get stuck by the “good old days” or stuck by regrets from the past. Instead, only look backwards to see where He has brought us from and how faithful He has been. Then, He will help us become unstuck and be able to look forward to where He is taking us.
Jesus is seen in the attentive gaze!
We need to recognize and live connected to the fact that we serve a risen Savior! Every day, we need to make the choice to keep our eyes focused on Jesus and the truth of His Word. We cannot let distracting debris get in our way. He can give us victory over the spiritual attacks of the enemy! Whether we feel like it or not, out of obedience, our vision needs to be focused on Christ alone!
REMEMBER Hebrews 12:1-2 "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes only on Jesus, the champion who began our faith and makes it perfect. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor at the right side of God’s throne."
So, I want to encourage you to LOOK FOR Jesus and LOOK TO Jesus in your daily life. What has He blessed you with? What has He protected you from? What doors has He opened for you? Who has he brought into your day that you can share Him with?
Ask yourself ~ Are you daily depending on His strength and His guidance?
Or, are you trying to do it on your own, finding your own way…blindly playing Marco Polo?
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