“Never take your eyes off the master because he knows things you don’t.”

Lysa Terkeurst

Friday night I had an opportunity to attend a woman’s gathering at my church, something I rarely do. One of my dear friends mentioned it and we decided, last minute, to go together and I’m so glad we did.  It was a thoughtful time of live worship with an all-girl band at our church and there was a simulcast so we could watch, with other women around the world, wonderful and challenging speakers like Lysa Terkeurst and Ann Voskamp.

I took a few notes, but this quote from Lysa — “Never take your eyes off the master because he knows things you don’t.”— was so powerful, I wanted to share it with you.

Lysa shared an adventurous family story involving a scuba diving experience that concluded with the dive master telling each member of her family to ALWAYS keep their eyes on the dive master, because he knows things they don’t.  I’ll let your imagination fill in the blanks, but it drove a spiritual point right to the core of her heart… and when she shared the story… it did the same for me.

Remember in the Bible when the disciples were out on their boat one night and the winds came up and rocked their boat and Peter looked out over the waves and Jesus walking on the water?  Good ol’ Pete wanted to join Jesus ON the water.  And he did.  At least he walked on the water for a few steps.  But, you remember what happened?  He started to sink.  We know why Peter sank… scripture tells us he noticed the strong wind and became afraid.

There is no doubt… I am a highly distractable person.  Squirrel!   I would probably be like Pete and notice the wind, the smell of the sea, the pressure of the waves, and my feet walking on the water.

This was a faith lesson for Peter.  It’s a faith lesson for us too.  Every single day we have the opportunity to keep our eyes on Jesus… to believe Him… to trust Him… or sink/ focus them elsewhere.

Have you ever thought about the percentage of your day that you are living with your eyes on Jesus, our Master?

I’m going to venture to say that I think it’s a small percentage.

Immediately I want to deny that.

I live my life, for the most part, to honor and glorify the Lord.  I read God’s Word, pray, love others, serve others, and seek the Lord for guidance and direction. But… how much of the day do I simply live pretty much on my own terms? Sure, I interject short prayers through the day seeking wisdom and guidance.  I let Him know my gratitude for various experiences and provisions. I even intercede in prayer for others. But are my eyes glued on the Lord?

The WHY of that brief statement Lysa made really drives home the point…

“because he knows things you don’t.”

That gave me pause.

Sure, I KNOW God sees the big picture, I know He knows what’s best for me, I know that He has a purpose and a plan.  I know…. 

I’ve spent the last nearly eight years walking an unexpected path.  A path that has been more about my trust in God (or lack thereof) than anything else.

Everything may look rosy for you now… but know… we all will walk through hard times of varying degrees.

It was in the midst of better times I heard the Holy Spirit question me regarding my trust.

Every week I would lead kids to say, “I can trust God no matter what.”

I believed it or I wouldn’t have led the kids to say that phrase. Yet, the Holy Spirit very specifically questioned me in my spirit with these words, “Do you really?”

At that time I had a very busy life… doing all kinds of good things for the Kingdom. I sought God for direction. BUT… I had my own agenda too.  Everything on that list was, in my mind, God-honoring.  I tried to follow the verse that tells us to — Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Philippians 2:3

You see, as much as I sought to honor God in everything I did, I, many times, put my own purposes ahead of His. We all do it.  It’s called competence.  You may be good at your job or whatever it is you put your hand to doing and without realizing it you go about your day with love for the Father and good intentions.

When things go south, we say, “Lord, what’s up? Why did you let that happen?  What am I going to do?”

If we had kept our eyes on Him… things might not have gone south.  Then again they very well may have gone the exact same way.

That’s where trust comes in.  God wants us to trust Him through the good and the bad.  Sometimes we’re better at one than the other…

We can hang our hats on Romans 8:28 — We can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.

Because He has a better plan for our lives than we can even imagine, because He is holy, because He created us, because God loves us… we need to filter our days through the knowledge that we cannot afford to EVER “do it” on our own.  Daily, we must die to self and our ways and follow Him.

Keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus is the best thing we can do every day.

We absolutely need to remember that our Master, Jesus, needs to be our center.

We need to keep our eyes on Him… because He knows things we don’t.

Simple isn’t it? He knows. We don’t.

More humbling.

More perspective.

More HIM.

Less me.

And that’s the bottom line, isn’t it?

The question we need to keep asking ourselves is, “Who is the focus of my attention?”

It’s JoyDay!

And time to get our joy meters soaring!

Please join me in thinking back over the past week and counting seven things for which you are thankful.  This simple exercise of counting and giving thanks together in this space is something we do each week to reset our compasses and put our eyes back on the Lord.

I’ll start…

Thank you, God for…

1. being our always trustworthy Master.
2. our small group and the Alpha series.
3. good friends who will fill in for us at church this weekend.
4. sunshine… a least a portion of the day… four days straight!  
5. a wonderful evening with my friend.
6. being able to chat with a friend as she drove through Ohio.
7. Your faithfulness.

Now…it’s YOUR turn!

List your ‘seven’ in the ‘share your extraordinary thoughts’ section below.  You’ll be glad you did.

Thank you for stopping by and leaving your sweet thoughts.

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