Proverbs 23:26 My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways.

Following up on yesterday’s devotional Watchers, if you have not read it yet, please go now and read it. It will help see this in context.

The first essential understanding has to come from a position of sonship. If you have not given your heart to Jesus you cannot see this from that perspective. All observations come from a perspective of who we are. If you are in Christ, your perspective changes. Please understand that is the first rule of spiritual enlightenment.

Now let us speak to watching God. Our eyes observe His ways. Please consider this before anything else in this observation, having given your heart to Christ, you are a new creation. Your first and most critical observation has to be the changes within yourself. We are familiar with our understanding of observations from our own perspective, and if we have changed, then we need to stop looking thru old eyes.

I come to see God first through those things He has renewed in me. We can change our minds, our desires and our goals according to our will. That does not mean that God made the change.

1 Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Accept that those things God has changed in you, are things changed in you and you alone. This is not a group hug, it is personal and with purpose according to God’s will for you, not anyone else. What God does in your brother and sister in Christ may be the same from an external viewpoint and resounds a memory in you, but God’s will for them is just as personal as it is for you. Your calling is not theirs and their calling is not yours. God’s will for you is personal.

Tomorrow part three in the trilogy of the watch.

1 Samuel 16:7 But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.

I’ve always considered myself to be a people watcher. I have done it for as long as I can remember. I have for the most part imagined what is in their life. Everyone has a story, everyone has history and except for a few recognizable moments where you see yourself in the behavior in others, life is a mystery.

Yesterday I was waiting at a light and the traffic on the opposite side from me had their light turn green. As the lead car began to enter the intersection a young man riding a sporty motorcycle ran the red light and missed the lead car by inches. As the driver passed me I looked at her and saw her face plainly. I could tell what she was thinking, I did not have to read her lips to know what she was saying. I discovered in her that moment when I had felt that very same thing. We connected, even though she was unaware of me.

I do not know this woman, her name, her job, her life, but in an instant, for a brief moment, I knew one slice of her life. I knew this only because I recognized in me what I saw in her. That does not mean I know her. In comparison, with people I have known for years, I have witnessed only momentary slices of a life in which the other person was willing to allow me a close up view and I get to know more than just what is observed with the eyes. That does not mean I know them beyond that which they are willing to share. The rest is left to my imagination.

Tomorrow I will complete this thought as it relates to watching God.