Look

But the LORD said to Samuel, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The LORD doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” ~ 1 Samuel 16:7 NLT

Due to the struggles we were having getting Savannah ready for school, we started a new routine. Although God has walked us successfully through that season, we’ve continued our new routine. Every morning, we pray an interactive prayer with our girls, asking God to anoint us: touching our heads, we ask Him to anoint our minds; wigging our ears, we ask Him to anoint our ears; and it continues for our eyes, mouths, heart, hands, and feet. The whole prayer is important, but over the past few days, God has shown me the importance of praying for our eyes. We ask God to open our eyes to see people as He sees them and to see into the spiritual realm—to see the Truth—in every situation.

Yesterday morning, I was in a funk and couldn’t shake it, so I opened my journal and began reading through the Truths God has given me over the years, praying that He’d open my eyes to what I needed to know and see. And then I spotted it! In June, 2010, God revealed Himself to me as El Roi, “God of seeing, the God who opens our eyes.”

In 1 Samuel 16, God commanded Samuel to stop mourning Saul’s fall from anointed leadership and to go anoint God’s chosen king. God warned Samuel look—or see—not with human judgement, but through the spiritual eyes of the Lord. The “Lord looks” is the Hebrew word, “ra’ah” meaning to see or behold and is the root word of Roi, the name of God meaning “to see.” My prayer for us today is that God would anoint our eyes, so that we’d see as He sees, in all situations.

©Heather Potts 2016

Obvious

I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened… ~ Ephesians 1:17-18 NIV

Likely you’ve seen the “memories” feature on Facebook of posts and pictures from years past.  On January 6, 2014 I’d made the comment that we were about to see our first pictures of baby Caleb… For years, I didn’t want kids because I didn’t want my kids to relive my childhood.  But then in 2010, God spoke to Brad and said we were going to have a son and we were to name him Caleb.  After we had Savannah, we naturally assumed the next pregnancy meant Caleb was “on the way.” But when we were in the ultrasound, something was missing…and the ultrasound tech had to point out the obvious three times to assure me it was, in fact, a girl.

I was distraught.  I had been so certain we were having Caleb…

We drove to our girls’ godparents’ house, as they were eagerly awaiting the pictures and the report. Nichole gave me a hug and said, “She’s beautiful.” Sean, seeing that I was upset, said, “It was always a girl. God didn’t just change the baby to a girl today.” And there it was. It was so obvious but I’d missed it. But I wouldn’t miss it again! When we got home that night, I prayed and asked God to tell me all about my little girl, her name and who He had called her to be. My faithful Father said her name is Elizabeth, which means “fullness or abundance of God.” And our lives have been forever blessed by our Elizabeth Joy!

What are the obvious things—the blessings—that you’ve been missing and losing sight of because you’ve been consumed by other things? Pray for the Spirit of wisdom and discernment, that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened and you would see all that He wants to show you.

©Heather Potts 2016