“Look at me!”

‘Skye! – Look at me!’ is a command we learnt recently in Skye’s puppy training class, we say it in a happy voice then when she’s worried or in danger, we can tell her to ‘look at me!’ and she will look to her owner and feel safe. 

Heidi Baker wrote “Whenever I say ‘look at me, Lord’, He responds: ‘No, look at Me!’ …. I want to live in that secret place and look at Him. When we focus totally on Him, we stop worrying about me altogether.” 

Its so easy to focus on God in the easy times but how many of us keep our focus on God at other times – in the challenging times? Do we look inward worrying and multiplying our own anxieties? Or do we look to our Heavenly Father who’s saying “Fiona! Look at me!” (You can put your own name here.) 

The politics of our country is in an unprecedented state of unrest. The media, as usual, are catastrophizing, reporting media hype, exacerbating uncertainty, fear and anxiety, creating divisions. We have a choice: we either become embroiled in it and join the national press in panic mongering, a consequence of which will contribute to bringing our country into a major state of unrest influencing every aspect of society, or, we choose the alternative – the way of peace. 

For those of us who are christians now is the time to look at Jesus – to focus on Him to receive His peace, grace and love. To trust Him for our future. To draw ourselves into that secret place, to be so focused on Him that we see how He wants us to help Him encourage our neighbours in our multicultural nation. We, as a faith, are called to look to the needs of others in our society – our families, our neighbours in our communities and our brother and sisters throughout the world – to reach out to them in peace, love and harmony. We know that the only way to do this is not in our own strength but by drawing  strength from Jesus as He calls out to us “Look at me!”

‘Turn your eyes upon Jesus 

Look full in His wonderful face 

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim 

In the light of Your glory and grace.’
Jesus called us to trust in Him and bring hope to the world – to whom will you bring light and hope today? 

Have you ever groaned to God?

Have you ever groaned to God? Most of us have at some stage or many of us do most of the time. But have you ever been in that situation where you can’t pray? Where words can’t express what you feel? Have you groaned and moaned at Him then?

It’s worth having a go.

A while ago when something was too big for me to deal with I groaned at God. I couldn’t find the words to express what I needed to say, so I started groaning. It started with little groaning sounds and sighs but then went deeper until I was groaning and moaning audibly louder. Something happened. I sensed that the Lord’s spirit connected with mine, he identified with my pain and he met me there in the middle of it. Then gradually as I groaned on, peace came until I was no longer moaning but was silent filled with a deep sense of peace. The situation I was praying over changed then having thanked the Lord, I forgot about it.

Then the other day I was reading a book on intercessory prayer when the author mentioned crying before the Lord. I thought I often feel things too deeply to cry, but I’ve groaned. Then before me on the pages of this book I read someone articulating the importance of groaning before the Lord.

When we pray without using words, we can only pray in God’s will because our spirit is connecting with God’s Spirit, the Holy Spirit who intercedes for us with moans and groans (Romans 8).
So if we moan and groan without words we’re doing something that the Holy spirit does anyway. Its biblical to groan at God, often this will bring us to tears, another form of wordless prayer. God answers prayers made with our tears too.

So however we feel, we can come before the Lord, honestly and, without words meet with Him, connecting with Him knowing that our prayers, although we don’t have words for them are heard by God and within His will. How much more powerful is that? Praying within God’s will our prayers will be and are answered because

“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.
“And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so my ways are higher than your ways
and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.
Isaiah 55:8-9New Living Translation (NLT)

So let’s be released into God’s presence today, being released from the bondage of words and pray freely, wordlessly interceding with Him in the power of the Holy Spirit.

And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers[l] in harmony with God’s own will. And we know that God causes everything to work together[m] for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn[n] among many brothers and sisters. And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory.
Romans 8: 26-30