What are You Looking At?
by Brandy Webb
Are you so focused on your failures, missed opportunities, mistakes, trials, etc… that you miss God’s beauty? Do you overlook the blessings that you already have because they don’t match the “pictures of success” in your mind? If yes, then you are looking at the wrong things. You are listening to the deceiver who doesn’t want you to be joyful, hopeful, and faithful. You are allowing yourself to have a pity-party-of-one, which honestly I believe makes Satan happy and God a bit sad. Don’t worry, I’m talking to myself here also.
I know that this world is hard, but you and I can’t focus on the ugliness of the world. It will only cause us to give into despair, which can quench God’s Spirit within us.
16 Rejoice always. 17 Pray without ceasing. 18 In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus toward you. 19 Don't quench the Spirit. –
1 Thessalonians 5:16-19
It is God’s will for us to give thanks always because this strengthens God’s Spirit within us. The Spirit is like a plant and plants need water, warmth, nutrients, and most importantly light to grow. When we are looking at the wrong things, the stuff that makes our hearts weak, our minds cloudy, anger to rise, or sadness to swallow, we are diffusing God’s light to shine in us. It is like placing a plant under a blanket. Eventually, the plant will wilt and die. Well, if we think of the God’s spirit as a plant that is growing inside us that is supposed to bear good fruit; then we better make sure we are feeding it good things that bring life, light, warmth, etc… And I believe we can do this by “looking at,” focusing on, the beauty around us rather than the filth.
A good place is just paying attention to God’s creation. If you can see the creation around you, thank God for the fact that you can see. If you can hear the creation around you, then thank God that you can hear. In fact, if you can comprehend the things you see or hear that are around you, then thank God that your mind is still functioning correctly. Honestly, there is a lot we can thank God for if we just take the time to look around us and notice the beauty that is there.
For instance, I love sitting on my porch and watching the hummingbirds. Do you know that the beautiful throat colors that we see are actually not due to pigmentation? It is actually due to light refraction because of how the feathers were created. It is quite fascinating to think that what you see is caused by light being refracted like a rainbow, and our God created that. It is beautiful.
God’s creation is beautiful, and I believe if we focus on His beauty we can add light to our eyes. It may even help to remove the “beams” in our eyes. The point is, we need to pay attention to what we are looking at and make sure it edifies us, which will give us strength. Remember, our God is bigger than any of our problems, therefore:
Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing. [Because] those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. - Isaiah 40:26, 31