27
Where's Your Eyes?
Justin SmithProverbs 4:25-27
Look straight ahead, and fix your eyes on what lies before you.Mark out a straight path for your feet;stay on the safe path. Don’t get sidetracked;keep your feet from following evil.
Growing up I always wanted to know the joy and freedom of riding a motorcycle. So at the age of 21 I set off to take my first motorcycle safety course, and in that course the first lesson I learned would be one that would be difficult to understand but would forever shape the way I saw life. The principle was easy to grasp, but the practice was difficult to execute. The principle is: when going into a sharp turn it’s vital that you not look straight ahead, at the guard rail you’re trying to avoid, but look through the turn to where you want to end up. Why? Wherever your eyes are is where you will find your motorcycle. SO, if your eyes are on the rail, you will soon be one with the rail, if your eyes are looking down at the asphalt, you will soon be one with the asphalt, but if your head is up and looking through the turn to your destination then you will find yourself smoothly sailing down the road of fun.
This principle came to mind as I read Proverbs 4 this morning. Solomon exhorts his readers to “look ahead, fixing your eyes on what lies before you. Don’t get sidetracked, for this is how you will keep your feet from evil.” When the obstacles of life, the guardrails and asphalt of life so to speak, are before me it’s vital that I keep my eyes fixed not on them but my destination. When the temptations of my flesh stand before me I must not place my gaze on them but on my Deliverer. For where my eyes are there I will be also. If my eyes are on the negative, whether it be in gossip, pessimism, or judgment, that’s where my heart will be. If my gaze is fixed on the problems and their impossibilities, that’s where my soul will be. If I choose to look at evil, I will soon be captured by it. So why is this principle easy to understand but difficult to execute? Because human nature is to freeze up and fix our eyes upon the problem directly before us. After all, it’s big, ominous, threatening, more than you think you can handle, and glaring at you in the face. I don’t know if it’s fear or down right ignorance, but we get caught up in the moment and before we know it we find ourselves one with the very thing we were trying to avoid.
Thus the question remains, “Where’s Your Eyes?” Examining this question in multiple areas is key. First, literally, what are you looking at? What media, movies, shows, articles, or people are you allowing your eyes to look at? If it’s evil you will soon find yourself one with the evil. Second, what are you allowing the eyes of your heart to look at it? Are you fixing your eyes on the path that God has laid before you, or are you allowing your heart to wander in search of “greener” pastures? Are you allowing your heart to get “sidetracked”? Sidetracked by more…more fun, more possessions, more money, more pleasure, or have you fixed your eyes ahead on the path that He has laid out? The road of life takes twists and turns along the way, thus it’s critical to keep my eyes fixed on my destination and on my Deliverer, on the path He has created for me; for this is the only way I will keep my feet from evil.
Lord Jesus, I will daily choose to fix my eyes on You, as I desire to follow Your path and plans for my life. Please enable me to block out the distractions and the diversions of this world that I might walk in obedience to You. May my eyes, heart, and mind be pure and honoring to You today.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
