I had picked up our youngest foster child, dropped my personal belongings on the bedside table, answered questions being asked all the way from the living room, and flopped down on the bed exhausted. Something caught my eye as I swung around and glanced over to the right side of the room.
Immediately I heard a voice say “Stop looking over your shoulder.” Just as I started to say I wasn’t, it dawned on me – I was. So instead, I asked “what’s wrong with looking over my shoulder, Lord?” I knew it was His voice. I hadn’t even been thinking about anything, let alone talking.
The Lord spoke this to my heart. “You spend far too much of your time looking over your shoulder. Wondering who “that” was, or what “they said” or what “she thinks”. If you will learn to quit looking over your shoulder as you are following Me, I can take you somewhere. “
As I spent the rest of the evening focusing upon these words, it was as though the heavens had opened, fresh and new to me. I began really paying attention to how much I was ‘looking over my shoulder’ and realized what a vast amount of time and space it had invaded …
in trying to make decisions, while wondering what people would think or feel about it; while praying, as I glanced over my shoulder to see who was calling and if I should stop to answer, after all it just might be important; stopping to talk to the homeless guy in front of chick-fila, that after all, could lead someone to think I know him … STOP!
The Lord was teaching me a valuable lesson. If you truly want to be a disciple of Jesus, meaning a student of learning, then you only have time to focus on what is before you. If you spend all your time wondering about all the things surrounding you, then your decision has been made to be a Wanderer, not a Follower.
Let’s decide Today to stop looking over our shoulder in curiosity, and instead look unto Jesus with expectancy.