"Hide not your face from me"

You need to go to the store, not the one closest to your house because they don't have what you need. The distance requires you to drive. So you start.

 

How far do you think you'll move if you're looking only at the steering wheel? 

 

You will never arrive at your destination by fixing your eyes on the steering wheel. You will only arrive by watching the road.

 

"Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you. Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure. Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil." (Proverbs 4:25-27)

 

The best way to "ponder the path", to "not swerve" off the path, but to get to where you need to go is to look directly forward, to gaze ahead intently, earnestly, fervently.

 

As Christians, we won't get very far towards the destination of God and His will for our lives by looking at ourselves, our circumstances or our world.

 

David says there's "one thing" that he must gaze upon always, without interruption, "all the days of his life": God's beauty, God's face (Psalm 27:4).

 

"Hide not your face from me." (Psalm 27:9) 

 

Recently, my daughter climbed up into my lap and held my face within her little hands. She was gazing straight at me as she talked; I was gazing straight at her as I listened.

 

The longer I looked, the more I noticed. There were features of her face that I'd not seen before, features that were hidden from me because I tend to turn away quickly from her, to look past her, to look around her.

 

To know what she really looks like is going to take time, time to gaze.

 

"For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." ( 2 Corinthians 4:5)

 

The path away from yourself, through your circumstances, onto God's will, and into eternity begins and ends with knowing the face of Jesus. 

 

Fix your eyes on Him (Hebrews 12:1-2).