Look to the Lord Always! ...
“Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always.”
1 Chronicles 16:11 Okay, I want to start this devotion with a simple question? What are you looking at? That question should elicit hundreds of responses. Some might say Facebook, some Twitter, some TikTok, some TV, some the news, and who knows what else!!! But the deeper meaning to the question is where do you have your focus for your life? You know overall, where you are heading in your life. Now, for that response it probably is limited to a few answers. Some of those might be my work, or my 401K, my family, my health. Deeper answers come when we start talking about our lives, right?
Take a look at the scripture above again with me. It says, “Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always.” Can I shorten it? What if I just said Look to the Lord always? David said this to a bunch of guys that he had just appointed to do one thing. He appointed them to give praise to the Lord. And he said do it like this: Give praise to the Lord, proclaim his name; make known among the nations what he has done. Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts. Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice, and then our key verse: “Look to the Lord and his strength; see his face always.”
I don’t know about you, but I can’t say I see the Lord and his strength always! Don’t get me wrong, I pray and worship and study God’s word at particular times of my day or days, but then there are other parts of the day when sometimes my eyes wander to something else. Where I’m seeking praise for something I’ve done, or I see a fancy car, and I covet it. There are times when all I do is look at Facebook, or Google all kinds of stuff, and don’t get me started on how much I follow sports or the Stock market. No doubt I could add to the things that I look to other than the Lord, but I don’t have enough page.
I’m not saying any of those things are terrible, it’s just that they don’t have the same value for my life as the Lord Jesus Christ does. I love a good steak, and occasionally I like to have a donut (or two). Now which one is better for me? Of course you know the answer to that one! The Donut! Just kidding!
In the same way, looking to the Lord is so much better for our overall life, and especially the spiritual life of our souls than anything else we could “look” to. That is why this little verse is so important for us. I would encourage you to drink it in and think about it next time your eyes began to look at all the world has to offer. Maybe, you will remember this little article and do what we are encouraged to do from Hebrews chapter 12. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith. Now, folks, that is where life truly resides!!