Devotionals

Watch Me Now…

Shalon Clevenger  |  January 26, 2021

Hello and praise the God of all, the mighty god, from where all blessings. I am thankful Gid has brought us here together to Thank you for this time, these people, your word, and your presence. 

Isaiah 12 KJV 
1 And in that day thou shalt say,
O LORD, I will praise thee: though thou wast angry with me,
thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me.
2 Behold, God is my salvation;
I will trust, and not be afraid:
for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song;
he also is become my salvation.
3 Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.
4 And in that day shall ye say,
Praise the LORD, call upon his name,
declare his doings among the people,
make mention that his name is exalted.
5 Sing unto the LORD; for he hath done excellent things:
this is known in all the earth.
6 Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion:
for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee.

This word of the Lord came to Isaiah at a time when the people of God had lost their way, once again, with their idols and other sin. They had rejected God’s ways and wisdom and had become all knowing all by themselves. In chapter 6, The Lord declares the blindness to come upon the Jewish nation, and the destruction which would follow. (9-13). Feeling the pressure of their crumbling world, they seek relief from Assyria , away from God, despite God giving them a sure sign of salvation, that is,  the promise of the Messiah. (7:10-16). God reproves them for them for their sin and then comforts them with vision. 

Here, in chapter 12, we hear the voice of the lord saying BEHOLD GOD IS MY SALVATION. Here I feel the Holy Spirit calling to us:  Behold! Watch ME now. While circumstances, “what we see,” may say otherwise—God is saying, watch me! Look at me, not at the world. Pay attention to what matters, the eternal, for the temporal, shall pass and is coming to pass. 

We often say of ourselves, Christians, we’re kingdom people, yet our eyes are not cast on the kingdom of God, but the kingdoms of this world. 

The Pharisees were “kingdom people,l so they proclaimed, yet they had no idea where to look…

“And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. And he said unto the disciples, The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see it. And they shall say to you, See here; or, see there: go not after them, nor follow them. For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day.”
‭‭Luke‬ ‭17:20-24‬ ‭KJV‬‬

…where are we looking? What are watching and waiting for? Is it  the next headline? The bottom line of our bank account, the next promotion, the next new fashion trend, or social influencer bandwagon to hop on board? 

Where we look is where we walk. We walk where we fix our eyes. How difficult is it to navigate a place or situation with blind eyes!  

So God says “behold!” (Some 1300 times recorded in scriptures). “Watch!” The entire bible cries out from genesis – ‘look” for Christ- to revelation—see me, the savior of all the earth! Watch Him Now. 

I believe today we must be diligent! Our eyes must be fixed on Jesus, from whence comes our salvation. We must silence the visual noise of this world  and “see” and know the direction and voice of God. This is how we need to live—in feast, famine, health, pandemic, peace, chaos—not only for the peace of our own minds and hearts but for the peace of a people, a body, a nation, our world. 

When Abraham looked for God, he didn’t need to see the new world. He knew in faith  that his destination was outside of his present circumstance “the land of the Chaldeans.” His only way toward peace and prosperity was to watch God, keep his eyes on the “source” of his salvation  and that was enough….more than enough…trust, obey, and know God had something better than his “world” in store for Abraham, his family, a people, a nation and generations.

I saw an ad the other day  that said “The year our pets saved us” and I wondered who or what are we turning to save us? From what you may ask. I think that too is a problem for today’s believers and the world at large. Not only do we rely on the wrong sources to “save” us, but we also err in identifying what or who we needing saving from.

It can be as simple as filling our Amazon with things we don’t need to save us from the depression of being locked away for a year of Covid. It can also be as detrimental as getting pregnant to save a marriage. Unfortunately, the fleeting satisfaction of these temporal saviors repeatedly leave us more than ever wanting of true salvation. 

Noah withstood his whole world being turned upside down…people, animals, vegetation, the very dirt upon which his feet would walk countless miles. I imagine after a minute, he may have grown weary with his circumstances , until…that day…the rain stopped…Can  you hear it? No, dear, I think it’s finally over! Hallelujah! Now we can get back to normal. 

But wait, water still surrounded them, no land was in sight, THE WORLD AS THEY KNEW IT HAD NOT RETURNED TO THE WAY IT WAS. 

Noah investigated a little, took a survey of the land, assessed the current circumstance, he sent out a dove. It returned to him. No place for it to land. No rest in sight. Do you think Noah might have wondered at the point, HOW LONG IS THIS GOING TO LAST?

It wasn’t until Noah saw the return of the olive branch, and then later beheld the rainbow that he no longer needed to wonder, how long will this last, but I imagine, he may have joined in the song in Isaiah:

Praise the LORD, call upon his name,
declare his doings among the people,
make mention that his name is exalted.
5 Sing unto the LORD; for he hath done excellent things:
this is known in all the earth.
6 Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion:
for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee.

What do you see? Do you see Jesus in the midst of what seems to be at times, unchanging, or worsening circumstances? 

The Rorschach test is a psychological test in which subjects’ perceptions of inkblots are recorded and then analyzed using psychological interpretation, complex algorithms, or both. Some psychologists use this test to examine a person’s personality characteristics and emotional functioning. The test often appears in popular culture and is frequently portrayed as a way of revealing a person’s unconscious thoughts, motives, or desires.

Ink blots and obscure designs and pictures can reveal different things to different people. Is it a blue dress? An orange dress? An old lady, a young lady? A bat, a moth? They’ve been used for decades to help psychologists to determine the mind of a person by asking the question, “What do you see? “

Some interesting features of this test: 

* The subject is then asked to describe what he or she thinks the card looks like.

* Test-takers are allowed to hold the cards in any position they may want, whether it is upside down or sideways.

* The respondents are free to interpret the ambiguous image however they want.

* They may also respond in any way that they want. They may say that they see one thing, several different things, or even nothing at all.

* Test-takers can focus on the image as a whole, on certain aspects of the image, or even on the white space that surrounds the image.

* Once the subject has provided a response, the psychologist will then ask additional questions to get the subject to further elaborate on his or her initial impressions. 

What do you see? 

God is the source of our salvation. In fact, he is both the author (creator) and finisher (completer) of our faith. In him alone we find salvation, yet how often do we run to food, shopping, entertainment, or other people to save us from ourselves. Ourselves? Yes, isn’t that who and what we most often try to escape? The reality of our mundane existence, misplaced trust, inept abilities, and fleeting, disposable lives—isn’t that what keeps us up at night? We bury our emotions, situations, and seasons of life into a resurrection-proof tomb, and then wonder why we can’t feel alive anymore. We smother ourselves in doing, buying, and saying with actions, transactions, and words that not only fail to restore our lives but actually steal our lives bought with a price we can never repay. 

All the while, abundant life and true salvation is here, available and accessible now for anyone who believes, receives, obeys. Our salvation is Jesus. His love shown through his death burial and resurrection can save us every day. 

“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭5:8-10‬ ‭KJV‬‬
8 But Christ proved God’s passionate love for us by dying in our place while we were still lost and ungodly!
9 And there is still much more to say of his unfailing love for us! For through the blood of Jesus we have heard the powerful declaration, “You are now righteous in my sight.” … Now that we are at peace with God, and because we share in his resurrection life, how much more we will be rescued from sin’s dominion! Romans 5:8-10 TPT

Now, as the whole world groans and waits for a Savior, let it be known of us, of you and me, to know and proclaim the true Savior! Let us deny for ourselves the salvation imposters—those things and thoughts that lull us into complacency and acquiescence. 

People great and small have kneeled before false gods throughout history, yet the Bible promises every knee shall bow and tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Let us be among the ones who, now more than ever, call on the name of the Lord from where flows our salvation. 

May we fix our eyes on Jesus and watch Him, look for Him now. He is everywhere. As we endeavor to consecrate our lives, our days, our time in Christ next week, God help us to look toward you, not to the left, not to the right, not to  the talking heads or the enemy of our souls we look for you. We want to see you! We will stop looking at the battle and start looking at he victory, That is Jesus. You are victory. Now. Behold, god is my salvation, my strength, my rock on whom I can depend, my savior, my friend, my deliver, and provide. Oh, give us a fresh bison, apply your healing salve to our weary, burdened eyes and shine your light upon us. On Jesus name

Where we look is where we walk. We walk where we fix our eyes. How difficult is it to navigate a place or situation with blind eyes!  “