Do you trust in the Lord to help you through each day? Gyrations in the stock market, the massive baseless rise in the value of Bitcoins, pervasive greed in society, among other things, can move your trust in the Lord to your reliance on your own strengths. Then you will become preoccupied with events and forget you can’t control them, but can harm yourself by wallowing in them. In all you do, it’s vital you keep your trust in the Lord and lean on His guidance (Philippians 4:6-7).

Trust in the Lord And He Will Guide You

What are you striving to achieve? What will you do if you get what you want? Having arrived, then what? These are essential questions you should be answering today. In other words, where are your eyes focussed? 

Several years ago, a medical doctor told me that by looking into my eyes he gets a good reading of the internal workings of my entire body. Your eye, he said, tells me much more than specifics of the eye itself. It shows how different organs are operating; it’s the gateway that regulates the motion of the body.

Jesus tells us about the relationship between our eyes and our values in Matthew 6:22-24:

“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

Are you leaning on Jesus to guide you through your challenges? Trust in the Lord; He will make your path straight (Proverbs 3:5-6), and will provide your needs (Matthew 6:33). That’s His promise.

We need to trust in the Lord. Jesus’ remarks about the eye refer to the condition of our hearts. So a fundamental question is this: What’s the state of our hearts? Why do we seem to be so callous? Why do we appear to be devaluing life? Let’s turn from our selfish ways and trust in the Lord and His ways.

Will you commit to keeping your trust in the Lord? Will your daily dealings be transparent and caring? When we are transparent, our whole body will be full of light. We have nothing to hide. Our hearts will focus singly on the eternal and will be full of love for Jesus and others. Then, our eyes of faith, single, steady, unwavering, fixed on Him, will allow our actions to be wholesome and transparent—in the light. These are good eyes. 

Trust in the Lord and He Will Make Your Path Straight

Bad eyes, on the other hand, result from deceiving hearts, or hearts not focused on the Lord but us. Narcissistic people, self-absorbed, striving to crush others to get ahead, look through shifty, bad eyes that operate in the dark. Unlike good eyes that come from “pure” hearts, bad eyes cause darkness in our whole body. Folks with these eyes behave deceptively, inconsistently, continually chasing worldly possessions, and focus on them exclusively. That’s why Jesus reminds us of the need for good eyes. A clear heart, shown by good eyes, will result in a clear understanding of the Spirit. 

People with clear eyes are likely to respond to His prompting and remain in the light, on the straight path. Let’s understand that our eyes help select items our hearts want. Our choices will differ depending on which eyes we use to select these items; we may choose to use the world’s eyes or God’s eye. 

To control and correct our actions, we must see objects clearly like a golfer just before he putts. He fixes his eyes on a single line, keeps his head steady, and then putts. Set your sights on the Lord. Love Him with all your heart, soul, and mind, and you will become transparent, hiding nothing. 

Jesus goes on to tell us we cannot serve God and money, specifically, God and mammon; we must choose one. Mammon is the name for an idol worshipped as the god of riches. It has the same meaning as Plutus among the Greeks, the god of wealth. In essence, Jesus declared you cannot serve the true God while seeking after worldly riches—you can’t have good eyes and bad eyes simultaneously. One will detract from the other. We know this. We know as humans, when we set out to reach a goal, often we devote everything to it, and exclude everything else. 

Apostle James presents the proper view of measuring riches in James 2:5:

“Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?” 

Neither Jesus nor James is exalting poverty. They are merely signalling the different measurement standards: the world sees the material, while God sees the eternal. The world will recognize you as a success if you are materially rich, no matter how you acquire such riches. That’s why so many people strive for the material and gear their lives toward success in the world’s eyes. 

Along the way, they stress themselves to get wealth, fame, possessions, and an exalted position in society. Then they become disillusioned and burn out. This aimless striving is the danger about which Jesus warns. He reminds us our wealth on earth will not last. Nevertheless, wealth is the world’s standard for success. 

We ought to choose to spend eternity in heaven, so we must ensure we get the right filter for our eyes. We need to change our hearts to focus on items that matter, so our eyes will recognize them when we see them. Only through faith in Jesus will we be able to do this. 

God warned Israel continually to stay away from false Gods. In 1 Samuel 12:21, Samuel told the Israelites, “Do not turn away after useless idols. They can do you no good, nor can they rescue you, because they are useless.” 

Where is your focus today? What is important to you today? When last did you visit a cemetery? In the next week, visit one, and notice the dash between two dates—that’s life on earth. You take nothing with you at the end of your life on earth. However, you can be assured of eternal life with Messiah when you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart God raised him from the dead (Romans 10:9).

© 2017 Michel A Bell

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