There is one thing I know. I have been blessed in this life. I have a job. So does my husband. My children are healthy. My parent’s are still alive. I have the support of my family, my small group and my husband. I have the freedom to go to church where and when I want. I can travel to see my parents without any papers other than my driver’s license. I have so much to be grateful for. And yet, most days, I have problems seeing how God takes care of me.
Everyday as I drive into work I see men standing on the streets looking for work. They do not have regular jobs. They live on the money they earn each day. With this money they pay for food and shelter for themselves and their families. Everyday they are standing there, hoping someone will drive by and choose them to work. Some of them are skilled workers but do not have certificates or licenses to practice here in the US. They do manual labor instead.
So many things seem to be going wrong in our lives or the world around us, but when we remember that God is there for us, we can still be grateful for what he has done. I have a God who loves me. I have family and friends who love me, who are there for me. They share their journey with me as I share with them. Together with them I live and learn of God and his blessings. Together with them I get comfort and peace that comes from sharing God’s word.
Daily I pray to God to be my hiding place. I ask him to help me make wise choices and to keep me in the palm of his hand. I have to stop many times during the day to remember He is there with me. And I feel his presence and his peace. And then the fear subsides enough for me to think of someone other than myself. I receive freedom from anxiety so that I can see other people the way God sees them. I need to see those other people and help share their burdens and their joys.
Like Brandon Heath says in his song – Give me your eyes so that I can see. But I can only do that by his grace, his love and his mercy.
John 3:16-18 “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.
Romans 7:24-8:2 I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question? The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.
With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ’s being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death.
Give me your eyes for just one second
Give me your eyes so I can see
Everything that I keep missing
Give me your love for humanity
Give me your arms for the broken hearted
Ones that are far beyond my reach.
Give me your heart for the ones forgotten
Give me your eyes so I can see
Brandon Heath – Give Me Your Eyes
http://www.brandonheath.net/
