Gaze Upon Him

I shared this verse on my Instagram account back in January because God had given me the word sparkle for the year and this is the verse He led me to that pairs with it. I love ❤️ love ❤️ love the Passion translation of this verse. “Gaze upon Him, join your life with His, and joy will come. Your faces will glisten with glory. You’ll never wear that shame-face again.” Well first of all, who doesn’t want that? Another version, the NLT, says “you will be radiant with joy.” Both of those sound pretty darn good. But GLISTEN, that just sounds sparkly and if you know me, my favorite color is SPARKLE. That being said, I looked up the word glisten. Do you know what it means? It means to give off a sparkling or lustrous reflection! A reflection! We were made in the image of God. We are a direct reflection of Him. When we seek him, when we join our lives with His, a joy that only He can provide will overwhelm us. It will bubble over and spill on to those around us. The Bible says our face will GLISTEN with glory when we choose HIM. We are to be a lustrous reflection of the one that gave His life so that we can live. If that doesn’t make you want to choose Him well then take a look at this part. When I wrote about this scripture back in January, I focused on the sparkle, but today I want to point out what David is saying in the last part of this verse. “You’ll never wear that shame-face again.” We all have a past. We have all done things we regret, things we may carry shame over. For me it was a season of life that I was using alcohol as a coping mechanism instead of turning my gaze, my eyes to the Lord. It was a season of fear, loss, lots of uncertainties, anger, and growth . In the moment, I did not realize that I was walking in any of it. I had not taken time to talk to the Lord or reflect on the why. And if I am being honest, it wasn’t until this year that I have stopped to really reflect on it all. In the moment, I was having fun ( so I thought) , I was socializing, and helping to build our businesses. All was good, until morning came and I had to sit in the shame. The shame of asking my husband Eddie, “Did I do anything stupid last night? “ There were times that I really had the thought that one day I may be the reason that our business would fail. That’s a scary place to be. Why do I share that with you? Because this verse! David wrote it after he had just escaped one of the scariest moments of his life. In this verse he stops to reflect on the goodness of God. He remembers that God answered him when he sought after Him. In Psalm 34 David says that God answered him, delivered Him, took away his shame, heard him, and saved him. The key here is that David SOUGHT the Lord. When Daivd, “joined his life with Him (God).”, God was there. We need to know that God never leaves us, but we have a tendency to push Him away when we don’t want to hear what He has to say. I will admit that for sure. Sometimes I don’t seek Him because I don’t want the answer yet. Which in turn, just keeps me on the merry go round without a plan. I just keep spinning in hopes that an off ramp is up ahead. Friends, there is good news. We can learn a lot from David. When we are in seasons of fear, pain, hurting or maybe even running, we can take it to Jesus at any time and He will be there. He will do the same He did for David for us. He will answer us, deliver us, take away our shame, hear us, and save us. There is nowhere that we can hide that he can’t find us. We cannot outrun Him or outwit Him. We just have to call on His name. God promises us blessings upon blessings but we have to do our part. He wants to set us free from whatever burden we are carrying, but friend, you gotta take that first step. What does that look like for you? That one small step is just the spark that is needed to light the path forward. There is so much beauty in the surrender. When you name that pain, that shame, that burden that thing you are carrying it takes aways any hold the enemy has on you. When you name whatever it is that is holding you back from the full life God has for you, that thing doesn’t have the power it once had on you and you begin to live in the light. Step into that light today my friend. God has so much more for you! Our relationship with Jesus is interactive. It’s a beautiful dance. Turn that shame into SPARKLE! Let your face GLISTEN with His glory. ♡ Donna