The Eyes of the Lord

Feel all alone in the world? I know there are many times I do.

Do you ever feel that you have been abandoned, that for some reason you are being forced to go through some incredible problems and God is unaware?

Maybe he is preoccupied with some huge war on the other side of the earth, maybe a tidal wave or earthquake and he's forgotten about you?

Well, just like Apple has a saying "there's an app for that" it seems that in the Bible you'll find "there's a verse for that."

"For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His."
2 Chronicles 16:9

God is always watching. He does care. In addition, he will come to our aid and he will strongly support us.

The thing he's looking for is the attitude of the heart. At any given time in the world the vast ocean of humanity is busy trying to solve their own problems. They don't think they need God's help. They don't even really believe in God. They think they are self sufficient and can solve their own problems. The last thing they want is God meddling in their life. Because of this those who are trusting in God become very special to Him.

God has demonstrated his power and love for Israel by delivering them from the overwhelmingly powerful Ethiopians. Why did this happen? Because the Israelites relied on Him and called on Him for help.

However they decided they didn't need God's help with the next obstacle they ran into. King Asa decided he would just handle this one on his own. His heart had shifted from following God and being focused on what he wanted to what Asa wanted.  The result, God let him handle it on his own and the result was an unending series of more wars.

The lesson for us is clear - God is always watching.
He's paying attention to our hearts. He knows that when we follow our own desires and decide to go through life without his help the results will be bad. He can't support us when we are being selfish and self-centered.
But when we trust Him he can come strongly to our aid.

It won't always be on our time table. It won't always be in the way we wish.
He may delay things for a while to test us, to see if we'll keep trusting Him. It could be he delays his help for a while because he has some other purposes working.

But the word is clear, he will come to our aid if we continue to trust Him because His eyes are always watching.

The Real World

When you hear the phrase, "Welcome to the real world," what does that mean? 

What does it mean when you go from elementary school to junior high, to high school, to college, to marriage, to careers, to maybe even a business of your own? At any stage along the way you may hear the phrase, "Welcome to the real world.”  So what does that mean?

What's different about the real world?

A lot of things, but here are a few. Things happen faster. It's like going from a country road to the interstate, there's a lot more people in a lot bigger hurry. Another thing is intensity. There's a lot more on the line.  It's in the area of personal responsibility. You no longer have people looking out for you, encouraging you on, like you did in the past.  Now you're surrounded by people competing in the same arena, trying to move up just like you. Things that you do are not assignments for school, are not chores around the house, they involve helping a company become profitable or helping a company even survive.  The intensity, the importance of delivery is much, much higher. 

The support structure is different.  
There is less emotional support. It's cold blooded. It's everyone for themselves. It's finding that people don't really care what happens to you because they don't have time, they don't have the luxury. They're concerned about surviving themselves. They may be sympathetic, they may be sad if you fail, they probably will be, but they can't stop what they're doing to console you for very long because they've got to survive themselves.  

That's why people say it's more cutthroat, more cold blooded. It’s just everybody's trying to survive. You don't have parents at work. You don't have parents on the football field with you. It doesn't work that way. Welcome to the real world. What does that mean? 

It means you are going it alone and you're going fast and it's up to you to look out for you.