Gabe with his Uncle Jon along with Daisy (thankfully Daisy is no relation!)

Scripture

I lift my eyes to you,
O God, enthroned in heaven.
We keep looking to the Lord our God for his mercy,
just as servants keep their eyes on their master,
as a slave girl watches her mistress for the slightest signal.
Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy,
for we have had our fill of contempt.
We have had more than our fill of the scoffing of the proud
and the contempt of the arrogant. Psalm 123

 Observation
This week I’ve been trying to train Zach, a very excitable Labrador puppy. Zach’s heart is in the right place but his eyes often are not. The only way to keep his focus is with a Milk Bone biscuit hidden in my hand. I see a lot of people like myself in Zach’s darting eyes. We ought to have our eyes fixed on Jesus in every moment of life, our vision flooded with the Saviour we keep before us always. But we find it very hard to concentrate.

 Some of the most difficult distractions of life are in contempt, scoffing, and arrogance. Not everyone in life wants us to make it. There are people in this world who want to step up by stepping on us. The only way they know how to pull themselves up is to put others down. The only words that console their shortcomings are the barbs they throw at others. In fact most of the arrows they fling at the innocent are those the Holy Spirit has driven into their own disobedience. They just pull them out and use them against us.

I was shopping last week when on the busy pedestrian sidewalk I saw a German Shepherd sitting alert on its own. Whisking past the dog were dozens of shoppers. But the dog was oblivious. Instead his eyes were fixed in the distance. I followed his sight trail and saw some distance away his owner. She had trained the dog with hand signals. Between each command she would place both hands behind her back. Then with a certain flick of her hand the dog would eagerly sit, stand, lay down and come. It was a beautiful relationship to behold.

Application
That sense of focus must become ours in our relationship with the Lord. The greatest test our focus will ever endure come with jaunts and taunts from those who have their own issues with the Lord that they have never addressed. But the greatest lesson in injustice is to learn to worship with the discord descant of criticism around us. Our eyes must be focused on the Lord for one reason. God is full of mercy. He has better plans for us than our critics can imagine. It is our focus on the hope of God’s future plans for us, no matter our fumblings, that keeps us alert when permission comes from him to move into better things.

 If a dog can learn to wait and watch that closely then surely we can as well. That obedience lesson awaits you today in Psalm 123. When our focus is not on where we can best land the next punch, but instead on the gestures of God then we know we have begun to truly worship.

Prayer
Jesus keep my eyes on you today. Â