A few years ago, my husband and I had the opportunity to take an all expense paid trip without our children to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. One afternoon, we were able to go out shopping in the village. As we walked up and down the crowded street, watching people selling their wares, something struck me. Up in a tree, was a canvas of a Haitian woman. I walked by it several times until I couldn't get the image out of my mind. I walked back and looked up in the tree again. The artist portrayed the Haitian woman's eyes as full of despair and literally the gateway to her soul. I couldn't help but think of the verse in Psalms 42:11 "Why are you cast down, O my soul? Why are you disquieted within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance and my God." Of course I bought that canvas, and until the movers broke the glass I had framed it in, it hung on my wall, a constant reminder of this verse.
As I read in Psalm 42 this morning, I'm reminded of that story, but I'm also struck with the end of the verse...one that perhaps I've never paid so much attention to in the past. "...for I will yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance and my God." I am enamored by that phrase - God is the health of my countenance! When I am walking with God and spending time with Him, it shows on the outside! I look healthy, vibrant, full of life.
I'm thankful I don't struggle with depression, but there are so many people in this world that do. Some truly have a bio-chemical medical condition. (End of subject - no debate!) Others, however, struggle because of a heart condition. They are so downcast about their life struggles that they just can't give it over to God. They know He's there, but somehow it's just too hard to let God carry the burden for them. Do you know those kind of people? You can see it in their eyes - their pain and sorrow, much like I saw in the canvas of the Haitian woman.
No, I may not struggle with depression, but I surely struggle with other sins in my life, and this verse speaks just as loudly to me. The closer I walk with God, the more He points out areas in my life that require change.
I want people to look at my eyes and my countenance and see that I'm different - because of Christ and what He's done in my life. In order for that to happen, my eyes need to be fixed on Him and not on me. I need to allow Him the key to the inner places of my heart so that He can begin to bring about "health" and change me as He wants. I pray for 'change' every day, and not the political kind, the personal kind!
Lord, let my eyes be the gateway to my soul so that others can see you clearly in my life!
---Beth Banfill
www.GodandMe2theMax.com