I keep my eyes always on the Lord  

Psalm 16:8 “I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.”

In the late summer last year on one of our daily walks, we were inspired by a particularly impressive pair of sunflowers on Manor Road, and so went home and planted our own.  It was a bit late in the season to start growing a sunflower, but even with such a delayed start it still grew to nearly the height of my 6yr old daughter Abigail! We’ve committed to starting earlier this year so we’ll be getting ready to plant soon.  Now, apparently young sunflowers turn throughout the day so they are always facing the sun, and this helps them to grow well.

As I read this verse from Psalm 16 this week it reminded me of those sunflowers.  We need to be like the sunflowers and keep our eyes facing God.  And that is certainly a very active pursuit.  Our gaze will naturally get drawn in all sorts of directions throughout the day, but we need to maintain our focus. 

Christians in the early church used to pause 7 times a day to pray and read the Bible! Perhaps this feels a little ambitious, but the idea of pausing just briefly at various moments through the day to refocus our attention on God is certainly a good one. But we can also know that even if our focus on God becomes distracted, His focus on us does not.  

As part of our sunflower growing mission, we’re going to invest in some bamboo canes in the hope that this year’s sunflower will grow much taller and will need a little support.  And what a wonderful promise in this verse, that with God at our side we will not be shaken.   Like those sunflowers we will be able to grow and flourish as we lean on God.