11 Mar Living in However

My youngest daughter has an amazing imagination; she is easily moved by what she sees and hears. I need to be careful about the books, TV shows, and media she is exposed to, as she often has good and bad dreams related to what she has read or watched. More times than I can remember, she has come to my room in the middle of the night and cuddled next to me because of a bad dream she had.

Be careful, little eyes

My mother-in-law rocked all her grandchildren to sleep and is now rocking her great-grandchildren by singing the song “Be Careful Little Eyes.” There’s more truth to that little song that we must cling to than most of us understand. Only two doors of entry exist in anyone’s thoughts, based on what is seen and heard.

Unfortunately, we often desensitize ourselves over our lifetimes by exposing ourselves to things that do little to help us grow. Indeed, we need to be informed about what is happening worldwide—but how much do we need to listen to be informed?

…I pray for you constantly, asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance. I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms. – Ephesians 1:15b-20 NLT

Who do you know best

Rather than focusing all of our attention on the world around us, we would do better to understand the wisdom of God. And His wisdom comes as we pursue a relationship with Him and mature in our faith. We come to know God better when we spend more time with Him. I suspect that many of us are more informed about politics, health trends, celebrities, and fashion than we are about our Saviour.

The person I know best in this world is the one I spend the most time with: my husband. We have worked side-by-side for most of our married life. It hasn’t always been easy, but the more we work together, the better we understand each other, and the stronger our working relationship becomes. Sure, we’ve had to learn to give and take; sometimes I give more, sometimes he gives more, but we get things done in the end.

Connecting with God

Our relationship with God is very similar – the more time we spend with Him, the better we get to know Him. You might think I’m only talking about the time spent reading His Word and praying, and while that is an incredibly important part of getting to know Him, I’m also referring to spending time with Him in other ways. We can be with God when we spend time with other believers, because when two or three of us gather, He is with us (see Matthew 18:20). We also can spend time with God in worship, alone or with others (see Psalm 22:3). We need to be a bit more aware of what we are doing for us to connect with Him wherever we are – because He is always with us (see Psalm 139:7).

I dare go further and say that we will filter what we hear God saying to us through a filter of what we know better: Him or this world.

So be careful how you listen; for whoever has a teachable heart, to him more understanding will be given; and whoever does not have a longing for truth, even what he thinks he has will be taken away. – Luke 8:18 AMP

Being teachable

Perhaps the most important quality we can possess is being teachable, having the ability to absorb the truths that God is trying to communicate to us. However, we can’t accept His truths if we are more familiar with the world’s system than with God’s, as we will naturally reject what He is saying because it “doesn’t make sense.”

God’s way of doing things runs cross-grain to this world; He won’t be influenced by popular opinion or reason.

Luke 8:40-56 gives the account of Jesus’ healing of not only a woman who had a long-standing haemorrhage, but also of Jairus’ daughter who died before Jesus could get to her side. In verses 51-53, Jesus enters Jairus’ house and finds a crowd of mourners “lamenting for her.” Jesus told them to stop crying as the girl was only asleep, and He was summarily mocked – because everyone knew the girl was dead, what more could be done?

What follows the crowd’s laughter can easily be overlooked as it consists of a brief phrase: vs 54, “He, however”. Ignoring the crowd, Jesus pressed on, defying common sense: the girl was dead. Indeed, she was dead, but that did not matter because “He, however,” had other plans.

This year and beyond, I want to live in “however.” And I can only do so when I pay more attention to my relationship with Him than the world around me. Getting closer to Him will help me walk through the crowds into “however.” I challenge you to do the same. You’ll grow closer to the Lord as you purposely pursue Him by spending time with Him in His word, prayer, worship, church attendance, and Bible study. You’ll find that after consistently pursuing this relationship, your desires for things in this world change.
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O Be Careful Little Eyes

Oh, be careful little eyes, what you see.
Oh, be careful little eyes, what you see.
There’s a Father up above, looking down in love,
So be careful little eyes, what you see.

Be careful little ears what you hear
Oh, be careful little ears, what you hear.
There’s a Father up above, looking down in Love,
So be careful little ears, what you hear.

Be careful little mouth what you say
Oh, be careful little mouth, what you say.
There’s a Father up above, looking down in tender love,
So be careful little mouth, what you say.

Be careful little hands, what you touch
Oh, be careful little hands, what you touch.
There’s a Father up above, looking down in tender love,
So be careful little hands, what you touch.

Be careful little feet, where you go
Oh, be careful little feet, what you go.
There’s a Father up above, looking down in tender love,
So be careful little feet, what you go.

Harry Dixon Loes, 1892-1965