Looking Up Into His Eyes

This day, have I looked my children in the eyes and smiled from my heart—a smile that says with no reservations, “I love you, and I enjoy being with you”?  Looked my children in the eyes and said with my heart, “I hear you; I know you, and I like you, and I am proud of what Christ is doing in you-- I am eager to see who you are becoming, I desire all that is good for you”.

A reality check with Scripture will tell us this is what God does to us.  Are we looking up and meeting His eyes, filled with kindness?  Are we meditating on the great Love He has for us – a past Love of epic proportions as He has brought us to this place--"by thy grace I've come"; a present Love to carry us through this day victorious in Him, despite our failures and our feelings; and as John Piper calls it, a future grace, a promise of the good that lies ahead in His plans for us; and then finally "safely to arrive at home"?  

“The Mighty One will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.”  Zeph 3:17

“To be strong in the power of the Lord’s might implies two acts of faith.  First, a settled persuasion that the Lord is almighty in power…Second, to believe that this almighty power of God is engaged for its defense, so as to bear up in the midst of all trials and temptations undauntingly, leaning on the arm of God Almighty…the dear love He bears His saints engages His power.  He that has God’s heart cannot lack His arm.”   William Gurnall, The Christian in Complete Armor

The woman leading our book study asked us to put that last line into our own words.  The first thought would be, who would want to tamper with such amazing language?  I couldn’t possibly say it as well as that. But my second thought is,  “How can I own this truth if I think further about what it is saying?”  “He that has God’s heart cannot lack His arm.”

 

She who knows--knows from all God’s dealings with her over a lifetime-- that God loves her, for her it is impossible that His strength—the Power which created and cradles the world—be not hers.

She who reads the promises of His love in His Word cannot lack His strength in the fulfillment of those promises in her life.

She who sees Christ’s love on the Cross for her sin, Christ’s love victorious over the grave, knows she has been given His love for eternity, and does not suffer want of His strength in her earthly days.

Still, one cannot improve on “He that has God’s heart cannot lack His arm.”

“Nevertheless I am continually with You; You hold me by my right hand.  You will guide me with your counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.”  Can’t you see Him smiling at you, beckoning you to peace within His walls?

And the “looking up”into His eyes, the faith response of childlike trust and leaning:  “Whom have I in heaven but You?  And there is none on earth I desire besides You.  My flesh and my heart fail; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”  Psalm 73:23-25