THE EFFECT OF LOOKING UNTO THE LORD

THE EFFECT OF LOOKING UNTO THE LORD

There is, I am sure, a wonderful effect from looking to the Lord. “I will look unto the Lord” must be your watchword. There is plenty to be corrected in ourselves, and the more we are in the light, the more we are distressed by it; but there is less possibility of reforming oneself than there is of taming the ocean! Displacement is the only progress. The more the eye ^[p. 313] is on the Lord, and the more the heart is drawn out to Him, the more is there a looking after Him, as Elijah said to Elisha (2 Kings 2: 10), “If thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee”. Elijah there is the type of Christ glorified. It is the principle of faith, looking to what God accepts, and hence looking away from what is intolerable to Him - even oneself. The more He engages the heart, the more is the heart rewarded for its engagement; as one has said, ‘The draught which lulls our thirsting awakes the thirst anew’. There is a wearing out of the sight in continued looking at one object naturally, but when it is the eye of faith, the more you look, the more you can look; and the more you gain, and become distanced from the old man, because of your conformity to what your heart delights in. Thus the transformation takes place.

The real gain of experience is that I trust myself less, and because I do so, I look to the Lord more.