I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye.
A sister in the church shared the verse above with me yesterday. I have been intrigued by it ever since. God spoke to her through this verse, and I guess it’s now my turn.
To me that verse is so telling of how our relationship should be with Jesus. Yes, He can lead us in so many ways:
- We follow Him because we recognize his voice
- We follow Him because He sets the example
- We follow Him because He instructs us
But this verse takes it deeper. It tells us that He will guide us with His eyes.
Having owned and hunted with dogs for a good part of my younger days, I would equate God training us, like we train dogs. Voice commands work great, and that’s how you start training a dog. Teach your pup the basics. Don’t give him too much 9information too soon, or too fast. Give him just enough training to build confidence in you as a leader.
The next step as you build a relationship with your dog, and you get closer to one another, you can begin using hand signals. This is a scenario where we train by showing recognizable signs. We keep training using words (perhaps a still small voice) along with the hand signals or signs, and eventually, as the dog grows in knowledge and understanding, all that is required is the hand signal. The dog looks in the general direction of the trainer for advice and direction, the trainer shows the way, and the dog follows.
But only in the best teams or partners of dog and man, can the trainer command the dog with his eyes! The trainer looks in a direction, and the dog runs in that direction. The trainer looks another way, and the dog sits or stays. Here’s the rub; You only get to that point after two things happen:
- The dog absolutely trusts the trainer, and trusts that the trainers signals never change, he’s always the same.
- Secondly, because the dog is always looking into the eyes of the trainer because that’s the only place where the commands come from that bring any reward.
We must always be looking at Jesus. Look Him right in the eyes, trust Him, know His voice, know that He will always react the same way and always command the same way, and that will never change. His expression will say it all. If we look Jesus in the eyes, if in our life we are staring in His face, we will know immediately if we have made the right move, or if He wants us to take a different path. But to accomplish this, we have to remain fixed on the Trainer, on the One who loves us, and the One from whom the only reward that matters comes.
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