Getting Your Eyes Off Your Problems and Onto the Promises of God

Do you ever find it hard to take your eyes off your problems? Have you ever endured a tough season so long that you feel stuck? Have you ever started to feel like hard is all there will ever be? I know I have. 

I love planning a vacation to the beach. You book the reservations, you put together an itinerary, and as the scheduled date gets closer, you start packing. There is nothing like the excitement and anticipation about a week before you pull out of your driveway. 

Even though you are physically still dragging your feet through another work week, your heart has already arrived at your destination. You have your eyes on the waves, your toes in the sand, and your face feels the breeze. 

In Genesis 13:15-18 God did the same for Abram.  He let him feel the excitement of his destination even before he got there. In the NRSV, it says it this way, 

“The Lord said to Abram after Lot had separated from him, “Raise your eyes now, and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. 

I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth; so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. Rise up, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you. So Abram moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron; and there he built an altar to the Lord.”

In other words, God said to Abram, “Stop looking at the place where you are.  You aren’t staying here.  I was hoping you could fix your gaze instead on my promise and set your eyes on the place I am taking you.  Abram, it is time to adjust your focus, change your view and shift your perspective.”

God also told Abram, “I don’t want you to take a quick look at this land I have promised you, but I want you to start walking around in this place. I want you to feel the grass beneath your feet. Don’t just sit here and glance over at my promises to You. That won’t do. I want your heart and feet to start moving forward into the promise. In other words, it may be a little while before you arrive, but I want your eyes on the waves, your toes in the sand, and your face already feeling the breeze.” 

As children of God, we are part of the fulfillment of that promise God made to Abram. We have been made the children of Abraham through faith.  The promise of land did not just include the physical land of Canaan but is a promise of God’s blessings and favor we receive through Jesus both now and throughout eternity through faith. 

So if you feel you have settled down in a hard place and are feeling discouraged, or maybe you will never be able to move forward again, let the words God spoke to Abram speak to you. 

Let God speak that same promise and exhortation to your heart. “Get your eyes off where you are and any problem you are waking through.  Don’t let that be all you see. There is more to my promise for you than the place you are standing now. Look up not down. I want you to see my promise to You. Take a big long look at where I am taking you.  This hard season is not all there is, and certainly not all there will be.” 

God spoke something to my heart at the beginning of the season I am currently walking through. I knew God would not move the mountain I was facing, but He promised me He would walk me through it. A going through for me means there will be a coming out. Hard is not going to last forever. That has been God’s promise to me from day one. 

Time spent in this passage of scripture was God’s intentional way of reminding his daughter not to sink in the mud and miry clay of the temporary problems of a hard day. God did some shifting my gaze and moving my feet. He didn’t want me settling down in a place where I was not going to be staying. 

I don’t know what God has promised You, but I do know God has plans to use it for good.  I know your hard is not all there will be because God never leaves us stuck. God has a better day ahead and even a permanent vacation for His people. 

So today, I challenge you to adjust your view by changing what you are gazing at. Instead of focusing on what is in front of you or what problem or heartbreak you face, raise your eyes to see what is coming. Take a good look at what God has promised You. Then start doing some walking around in the promises of God instead of sinking down in the problems of a temporary day. 

I can’t speak for you, but I have been wearing muddy boots for a long time walking through the rough terrain I have been covering. I think I will take my shoes off today and start walking around in God’s promises to me. Take my shoes off, do a little standing on Holy Ground, throw in some dancing like David, and then stick my toes in the sand and let the breeze blow through my hair. 

I hope you join me. There is room in this vast, beautiful land God has promised me for the both of us. 

See you in the field and the land of promise, 

Susan