“9 For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless…” 2 Chronicles 16:9
Another word for blames is whole, or loyal. So, when God finds a loyal heart, or one that is solely set on Him, His eyes cease their running and bear down with focused interest on the one who is committed to Him. When the Lord’s eyes are set on you, it comes with strength. His favor, mercy, faith, grace, compassion, and wisdom fall fresh on the one who is soled out. God will show Himself strong in the life of the devoted. I don’t know of a hungry believer that does not want to experience all of God in that way. But there is one thing to also know. Along with God’s gaze of favor, what accompanies that is his eyes of fire. Fire speaks of His passion, His intensity, but also His thoroughness. He is all consuming. Along with the strength of the Lord is the sifting of the Lord. Do you know that if there is anything that ever tries to come into your spirit or mind, that the Lord will quickly point that out to you. It is our job to resist the temptation to entertain whatever it is that is trying to distract us. David prays in Psalm 139:23, “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!” He is inviting God to know what he cares about, what makes him anxious. When God is invited to do so I can guarantee that He will do just that. According to how you are living, then you may face some difficult days. If you are living according to the flesh or according to the Spirit will determine the result of the search. Paul says, “3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” Romans 6:3-4. This is not allowing anything contrary to the Spirit of God to take residence in our thoughts. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to in. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace” Romans 6:5-14. Child of God, you have been set free from the reign and rule of sin. Our deliverance is through our union with Christ in His death and resurrection. When we are in Christ, then we died along with Him. Sin no longer reigns in our life. We can now resist sin because we are no longer living in or from it. I pray for you to walk upright today realizing that God’s eyes are upon you giving you strength to obey Him in all things. God won’t resist for you, you must resist. But He’s done the best thing by giving us the power to say “no” to sin. Praise God! I am looking forward to a great day on Sunday as we look at Revelation 21. If you are able to help us on Saturday (9am-1pm) for the church workday, call or text the church office at 419-422-8660. There are several jobs to choose from. Pizza will follow our work together. Join us! Joy in Jesus! Pastor Mike
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Rev. Mike McClurgSenior Pastor, Findlay First Church of the Nazarene Archives
March 2020
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