Skip to main content

Face Toward!


When our now adult children were young, our son, probably around four or five at the time, was telling a story to my wife.  At one point, he reached up and put his hands on both sides of her face and turned her head toward him so that she was looking right at him.  Evidently, he felt he didn’t have her full attention until she was looking right at him.

The direction our faces are turned speaks volumes:
 

1.  What we turn our face toward shows where we think our needs can be met:

“Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes” (Daniel 9:3).

2.  What we turn our face toward shows what occupies our attention:

“For if you return to the Lord, your brothers and your children will find compassion with their captors and return to this land.  For the Lord your God is gracious and merciful and will not turn away his face from you, if you return to him” (30:9).

3.  What we turn our face toward shows our intention:

“They will ask for the way to Zion, turning their faces in its direction; they will come that they may join themselves to the Lord in an everlasting covenant that will not be forgotten” (Jer. 50:5).

4.  What we turn our face toward shows our purpose:

“When the days drew near for him to be take up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem” Luke 9:51).


Not only should we fix your eyes on Jesus (Heb 12:2), but we should also turn our face toward Him!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

New Year Trash or Treasure?

You probably know the old saying:  “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure”.  I am not going to try to prove or disprove it, just look at it from a different angle. Cheryl and I were recently walking on a beach in Florida .  A man was walking along with a bag and was picking up trash and putting it in the bag.  Was he picking up things of value? We also saw a different man walking along the same beach with a metal detector.  He would swing it back and forth and would occasionally stop and dig in the sand.  Was he looking for things of value? Both were intent.  Both were focused.  Both were diligent. I’m guessing that the one picking up trash was not looking for things of value.  I’m also guessing that, by picking up trash, he was valuing the beauty of the beach and didn’t want the trash to mar it.  The one with the metal detector, I’m guessing that he was not looking for metallic items of trash but was looking for...
1 comment
Read more

Don't Get Tripped Up

I do enjoy traveling and I keep an eye out for good prices. I also enjoy looking at trends in travel. For a while, the travel industry focused their advertising on taking those trips that might be on your bucket list.   That faded a bit and I started seeing ads about taking the trip of a lifetime. I guess both those campaigns have been waning since I’ve been seeing information about taking an “epic” trip.   Recently I noticed the phrase “unforgettable trip” in advertising.   More recently, I’ve been seeing promotions about taking “sustainable” trips and even “reconnecting to our roots” trips. As I’ve been pondering these advertising campaigns, I thought I’d consider what their ideas encompass and then look at them from a spiritual perspective: 1.   “ Bucket list trips ” are based on a list of the experiences a person might hope to have before they “kick the bucket” (i.e. die).   While I can certainly come up with a bucket list of trips, I’m thinking a bu...
Post a Comment
Read more

Above My Pay Grade!

We like things that we can study, know and understand.  Sometimes we find it difficult to accept that there are things that might be hidden from our knowledge and understanding. The Scriptures indicate that there are some things hidden by design:  “The Lord our God keeps certain things hidden. But he makes other things known to us and to our children forever. He does it so we can obey all the words of this law.”  (Deut 29:29) Some versions of the Bible translate the hidden things as “secret things”.  Regardless, there are things which have been revealed and things which are kept hidden from us and remain secret. We may chafe at having to deal with the fact that some things remain hidden, but that’s often when faith and trust come in.  The Psalmist wrote:   “O Lord , my heart is not lifted up, my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.”  (Ps 131:1) The Psalmist seem to realize that th...
Post a Comment
Read more