Many verses of Scripture give to us a very vivid picture to be painted in the hallway of our personal mind’s art gallery.  Imagine the picture of this verse.  There is the humble, trusting believer, looking steadfastly into heaven.  On the ground, lies a crumpled net which is being left behind as the believer confidently steps forward, his foot raised out of the net that would have entrapped him.  The picture the world tries to draw would be very different.  The person in their picture would be staring worriedly at the ground as he walked.  In front of him would be another person, entrapped in a net from which he is desperately trying to extradite himself.  The foot of the person walking with head down is poised above the same net and, the viewer knows, the next step will trap that man also.  Despite the man’s efforts to look out for himself, he is only able to see the ground under his feet and never fully sees the danger ahead.  He is so intent with watching the steps he is taking that even his ears seem closed to the cries of the one who is trapped: "Look up, there is danger ahead.  I walked that same pathway with my eyes down and now I am trapped.  I am not strong enough to get out of this net alone.  Be careful, do not fall into the same danger I have.  Look up!"  There is only One who can see all the road ahead of us. There is only One who has the strength to pluck our feet out of any net that would ensnarl us.  That One is our wonderful Lord who is ever mindful of His own.  Our spiritual eyes need to be fixed on Him.  Where do we look when we need help?  Do we just look toward ourselves, our friends, our family or professional helpers (doctors, lawyers, etc.)  Or do we look first toward the Lord?  Many of the other helpers are good in themselves and God often uses others to come to our aid.  The Bible tells us that there is wisdom in a multitude of counselors.  But we must always look first and foremost to the Lord.  Notice in our verse that the Psalmist’s eyes were "ever" toward the Lord.  He did not just wait until he was in trouble to seek God’s help.  Day by day, his eyes were toward the Lord.  He had so filled his life with devotion to his God that there could not be one moment when he was caught off guard.  If we keep the Lord at the forefront of our focus in life, we will not have to look back after a time of defeat and say, "I had wandered so far from the Lord."  No, in triumph and in tragedy, we will be able to say, "The Lord was with me."  When trouble comes or the devil tries to ensnare us into his net of deception, the Lord, shall pluck my feet out of the net.  Did you also notice that it was his feet that had gotten tangled?  Oh, marvelous thought!  We all sin, we all fall for deception, but only the feet of the "constantly abiding, eyes toward the Lord Christian" get tangled.  This was no overwhelming, drowning or engulfing experience.  Because the Psalmist "ever" had his spiritual eyes upon the Lord, his deliverance was swift.  Think of what the word "pluck" denotes.  It is a strong, quick movement of snatching something out of danger.  It also means to remove, as removing feathers from a chicken is called plucking the chicken.  God will remove us from the net of the fowler!  Just as a good housewife of old was not done plucking the chicken until it was every bit clean and ready for use, so God can clean us and use us for His service when he plucks us from whatever trouble surrounds us.  His work is always complete.  Today let us practice keeping our eyes ever upon the Lord.  Danger is always around the corner, temptations abound.  Don’t be caught unawares.  Know that your Lord is near to help!

When I lost my peripheral vision, it meant that there was an area just ahead of where I was to walk that I no longer saw.  At first, the temptation was to look down to guard my own steps.  I soon found that not only did I invariably bump my head or run into others, but it soon became a dizzying experience.  My posture also would have been affected and I would no longer have been able to walk gracefully.  I had to train myself to keep my head up and look ahead, trusting my steps to the vision I encountered there.  But the most confidence that I felt was when I could take the arm of a trusted loved one who knew my need, knowing they would look out for me.  God is our most trusted loved one.  We can walk confidently through life when we walk in His truth.  The devil tries to make it easy for us to get caught up in a negative thought life.  Those negative thoughts can actually channel our life in a different way than God’s best for us.  I have met many people who have been injured or become ill and suffered the lose of full use of their bodies.  Some become bitter, critical and never do anything with the rest of their lives.  Yet there are others who have such a positive attitude.  They praise the Lord for His help and guidance.  They accept the changes in life and some even go on to excel in a new job or craft brought about because of the change.  What was the difference?  While the first group in essence either vocally or secretly blamed God, the victorious group kept His lovingkindness before their eyes.  God is so loving and so kind toward His children.  We need to trust Him with all of life.  Many times, if our spiritual eyes get clouded by self or the deceptions of the devil, we can begin to view God so dimly that we can not even see the rays of His love shining through.  If you are caught in the trap of discouragement today, STOP!  Sit down and make a list of all of God’s lovingkindness to you personally.  The list will most certainly be a long one.  Through the day more and more areas should occur to you.  Keep your "lovingkindness list" to read over when you are tempted to despair.  You may shed some tears, but they will not be ones of sorrow.  "Lovingkindness" is such a beautiful word.  It is one of my favorite words in the Bible.  Think of it.  God is not only loving, His wonderful love is full of kindness toward us.  What a comfort!  Do you feel small, cast down, unimportant today?  Lift up your head, God’s lovingkindness is directed toward you and that gives each of us a personal worth that no enemy can steal away.  As ambassadors of Christ, we need to practice lovingkindness towards others.  It is one thing to say we love someone, but lovingkindness goes a step farther.  It involves acts of kindness, consideration, time.  Is there someone in your life today that needs you to demonstrate God’s lovingkindness?  Be a minister of His grace and act upon it.  Remember to walk in His total truth every moment and rejoice in His lovingkindness.

Fear is a terrible thing.  Though few of us still hold our "childhood fears," many of us have secret fears.  Fears might not just be of the dark storm or thunder, but, more commonly, they are fears of failure, rejection or being alone.  Other fears are of illness, death or financial disaster.  The list can go on.  More powerful than any fear is the strength of the Lord.  II Timothy 1:7 says: For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.  Outside of godly fear, which denotes awe and reverence for God, all other fears fall in the realm outside of God’s will for us.  He has not given us the spirit of fear.  He wants His children to have lives of power, love and a sound mind.  He wants us to so trust Him that His perfect love casteth out all fear. (I John 4:18)  That same verse also says, ...fear hath torment, and He that feareth is not made perfect in love.  Torment is a very strong word.  It means "extreme pain; anguish of body or mind; torture..."  Those things are exactly what fears can do to us.  Fear seems to multiply and become unreasonable, feeding our imagination, haunting our dreams.  God can cast all that out.  The goal of each Christian should be to become mature and be made perfect in God’s love.  If we continue to entertain fears, we are not made perfect in love.  This morning we need to be honest with ourselves.  Do we have things, people or areas of our lives that are connected with fear?  We need to lay those before the Lord, asking Him to cast them out and replace them with His glorious light and love.  We need to ask God to give us power, love and a sound mind.  God is our eternal and present salvation, He can be the strength of our lives.  If you are trying to handle any fear on your own, you cannot have God’s strength.  Give it all to Him.  I am reminded again that when I was a little girl I had a very strong fear of the dark.  Even though by my teenage years, I knew there were no monsters in the closet, I was still afraid of the dark.  As a new Christian and a young married, I was brought by God face to face with my hidden fear when my husband began to work the night shift.  Fear became real to me.  One night I realized, "I am saved, Jesus is the Light of the world and He lives in me."  Oh, glorious thought.  Just like the beginning of our verse for today, the LORD is my light.  I confessed and renounced the fear and claimed the victory in Christ.  I have not been afraid of the dark since.  The Lord knew me and my future.  He knew there would be many more night jobs, three little children who needed me to guide them through the night, and times of physical blindness darker than night.  Yet through it all, fear could not claim me because I had learned to trust the Almighty God and knew the victorious answer to the question, Whom shall I fear?  We can shout back the answer, "Nothing, because my LORD is near!"

Several years ago there was an article in a news magazine concerning a cult that was making lots of money out of people’s fear of an impending nuclear war.  Thousands of people from all over America were selling all they owned and going to live in a remote area of Montana.  There they were building bomb shelters and giving all their wealth to the leaders of the cult.  The followers embarked upon an austerity diet and rigorous training.  It should not surprise us that the government found the leaders were not just the "religious" people that they seemed to be.  While their converts lived on little, the leaders ate full meals and lived richly.  They also stock piled guns and were involved in criminal activity.  The sad thing is that if the followers of that cult had only turned to the truth of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, they would not have been deceived.  Instead, they could have known the full assurance of this verse: though war rise against me, I shall not fear!  All through time there have been wars and rumors of wars.  Many Christians have fought and died in battles, but the Lord was always just as real, just as in control.  We can have absolute confidence in Him.  Come what may, He is totally aware of each of us as individuals.  To a government, we might be just a number, but to God we are His precious children.  There are wars of a different sort, too.  There are those wars we fight within ourselves against the attacks of the devil, against spiritual forces.  Then, too, we can be confident that the Lord of our confidence will be triumphant.  No matter who or what the host is that would encamp against us, we can fully put our trust in the Captain of our salvation and be assured that He can fight the battle through and for us.  There is an interesting story in the Old Testament that illustrates this truth.  When Elisha and his servant were in Dothan, the king of Syria sent a great host (army) against that city.  As the servant looked at the approaching army, his heart was filled with dread, but his master, Elisha remained calm.  Elisha said, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.  And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray Thee, open his eyes, that he may see.  And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots round about Elisha.  What the young man was allowed to see were the invisible forces of the army of God, totally outnumbering and overpowering the armies of the enemy.  God defeated the army that day without any human assistance!  It is not just in Old Testament times that the Lord has promised to care for His own.  Truly today, the angel of the Lord encampeth round about...us! (Psalm 34:7)  Our help is there, and if we would only ask the Lord for spiritual eyes to behold it, we would be filled with confidence.  We can behold that help today, as we trust in the Lord within our hearts.  We will see the shining of His host as we accept the promises of His Word.  How is it with you, Christian servant, today?  Does it sometimes feel like an entire host has come up against you?  Do not fear, but trust in the Lord with all thine heart.  No matter how rough the battle ahead, be confident.  God is the Captain who will lead us through to victory. (Scripture quoted is from II Kings 6:16-17.)

It is so wonderful to be a New Testament Christian.  Think of it.  At the moment of salvation we were secured a place in Heaven, eternally saved, forever kept by the power of the Holy Spirit.  We do not have to question day by day whether or not we will dwell in the house of the Lord...we can know for certain!  When we are saved, we do not need to pray or to seek after the promise of Heaven, it is assured to us.  We are truly a blessed people, because we have such a blessed Lord.  Even though we do not have to ask for Heaven, we can claim this verse in perhaps a somewhat different way than that of the Old Testament saint.  The desire that should be the motivating force in our life is to live each moment of every day for the Lord.  The reality of that living should give us the assurance that we are dwelling as close to the Lord as if we were standing in His presence in His glorious home on High.  It is for all the days of my life, now and in eternity.  We should want to so dwell, so abide in fellowship with the Lord, that we are constantly aware of Him.  It is something that we must seek after, it does not come easily or automatically, nor is it for the casual Christian.  No, the total blessing of dwelling in close fellowship with the Lord daily is reserved for the seeking Christian, the diligent and earnest, the sincere and humble, the totally committed one.  It should be our primary responsibility and job to seek after the Lord.  It should pervade every area of our life and thus enrich each of those areas.  We can not leave Him out of our work, our family, our pleasure time or any time of the day.  All must be His.  Think of the benefits!  We can behold the beauty of the Lord.  It is like an old black and white movie suddenly being colorized.  Our life will take on a new color and vigor, the beauty of the Lord will be seen each day as He works in our lives and in the lives of those around us.  Amazingly, He will start to show others His beauty through our lives as we continually submit to Him.  Then it will not be just us, but the Christ in us, that will shine through.  Think of the privilege of inquiring of the Almighty God, the Creator of the universe.  He is the One who knows the beginning from the end, who knows the hearts and intents of men, who always knows the correct answer to all of our needs.  We can inquire of Him!  But we must be earnest seekers, our desire must be correct.  The one thing that the Psalmist desired at first appeared to be three (to dwell...to behold....to enquire), but the last two are really dependent upon the first.  If we are to behold the beauty of our Lord and to use the privilege of prayer at His temple altar correctly, then we must be as those that dwell with the Lord in close communion daily.  We must truly live as citizens of Heaven, seeking to walk the earthly streets as we will one day walk the streets of gold up to the glorious "temple" of the Lord.  Dear Lord, help my primary desire today not to be self seeking, but seeking after the things of the Lord.  Help me to be aware of Your close presence and show me Thy beauty.  Because of that new awareness, change the way that I view Your working in my life.  Let me see that working in light of eternity.  Thank You, Lord, for the privilege of inquiring in Your temple through prayer.  Thank You for being my God.

In the book, The Hiding Place, Corrie Ten Boom tells how in the midst of a Nazi prison camp, the Lord kept the promise of today’s verse in her life and the life of her sister.  They were both sweet Christian ladies who desired with all their hearts to please the Lord, whether in life or in death.  That did not mean that they had a trouble free life.  Instead, they suffered in ways that most of us can not even imagine, and all because of their faith in the Lord.  But even then, in the time of trouble, God was there with them and He hid them in His special hiding place.  It is not a place we can touch with our hands, or unlock with a brass key.  It is a place more permanent than that.  It is the place of His presence, the place of His comfort and abiding, His pavilion.  When trouble comes, we have a choice to make.  We can either lose sight of the availability of God’s help and turn aside to our own feeble ways of anger, bitterness, fear or denial.  Or we can quickly flee to the only One who will take us in the midst of trouble and hide us in a tabernacle that no one else can see.  It is in the secret of His tabernacle where we can safely abide.  Secret places are for the closest of friends and family.  God takes us to the exact secret place prepared for us.  There He hides us.  Then, instead of defeat, we will experience His sweet victory in us as He sets us up upon a rock.  What better place to be than standing on the Rock, Jesus Christ.  Troubles may come, but He is that solid rock.  Nothing can defeat us there.  Nothing can separate us from the love of God: not enemies, trouble, cares, or death.  What a marvelous and exciting privilege it is to be the object of His special care.  Instead of prison walls of sin and fear, we can dwell in His pavilion where there is freedom and life.  In the reference section of my Bible, under the heading "Hiding Place," are found the words "Divine Overshadowing."  What a lovely thought.  Overshadowed with His mighty love!  For Corrie Ten Boom, that overshadowing meant sustaining through great trials and eventual freedom, to a life of future service.  For her sister, it meant Divine overshadowing in death and entering into the freedom of eternal life in Heaven.  His Presence was always there and the victory was complete for them both.  They had rested their faith in the sure foundation set for them in Zion, Jesus, Who was God’s tried stone. (Isaiah 28:16)  We, too, in our present trials of life can know the same victory and understand in a new way the declaration of II Timothy 2:19: Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his...

God is calling to you today.  To the unsaved, He is calling: "Come that ye might have life."  To the spiritually thirsty, He is calling: "Come ye to the waters."  To the weary and troubled, He is calling: "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest."  For those desiring His fellowship, He is calling: "Come."  To each of us, He is calling: "Seek ye my face."  It is God’s desire for us to be in communion with Him.  In Bible college, we learned a definition of worship that goes with this verse.  It was this: "Worship is a face to face encounter with the living God."  When we want our children to really understand something, we say, "Look at me."  God wants us to really understand His ways and His heart.  He says, "Seek ye my face."  When we want our spouse to really understand the depth of our love for them, we want them to look us in the eyes and see the meaning behind our words.  God says, "Seek ye my face."  Find there the depth of His love.  When we want to really understand someone’s character, honesty and sincerity, we closely study their face.  God says, "Seek ye my face."  Find there the true character of God, His quality and being.  Don’t stand afar off from God, come close, seek a face to face encounter with Him.  Worship Him in prayer and devotion.  Say to the Lord, My heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek.  Oh, to be so close to the Lord that we would truly be seeking His face day by day, moment by moment.  This kind of prayer is not the casual naming of needs, but a real seeking, a real labor of prayer.  Casual acquaintance will not do.  God wants an intimate relationship with us.  To provide for this relationship, He gave His all in the offering of Jesus Christ for us on the Cross.  Think of the earnestness and intensity of Christ who came to seek and to save us. (Luke 19:10)  We should give great zealousness to seeking the Lord.  Listen with your heart to the impelling directives of the following verses that describe the earnestness of our seeking.  If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. (Colossians 3:1)  But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. (Deuteronomy 4:29)  Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you. (Hosea 10:12)  That kind of seeking requires whole hearted commitment, acknowledgment of sin, and waiting upon the Lord.  Why not take extra time today in prayer, time when you really seek to get close to the Lord, time when you truly seek His face.  When you hear Him call to you: "Seek ye my face," be ready to answer from your heart, "Thy face, LORD, will I seek."