“It’s Not What It Looks Like”

Exodus 13:10: “And Lot lifted his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere (before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah) like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as you go toward Zoar.”

One of the proverbs that I grew up hearing my father (Deacon Lue Henry Lockett) say was, “The grass always looks greener on the other side.”

That phrase translated that things are not always as they appear. Since the beginning of man, the enemy has tried to tempt us to look at things from a perspective that differs from “The Lens of God.” But to look at life through the natural and not the spiritual will only lead down a dead-end road. Lot, the nephew of the father of the faith, Abraham, learned this lesson the hard way.

After Abraham and Lot’s servants disagreed, Abraham thought it best that the two of them divide the land and separate from one another. He gave Lot first bids on the land by allowing him to choose the area he desired. After his nephew selected his new territory, Abraham went in the opposite direction. When Lot saw the well-water plains of Jordan, he chose to occupy the territory there. But Sodom and Gomorrah were part of Lot’s jurisdiction, thus making his new home morally corrupt. For Lot, Jordan’s well-water plains were “not what they looked like.”

Like Lot, we too have the capacity to make the wrong choices based upon external appearance. Let’s ask the Lord to open our eyes so that we may make the correct choices and see life the way He does.

Let’s Pray: “Father, help us to make the right choices. Help us to not make decisions based upon how a situation looks. Holy Spirit, lead and guide us in all our decision-making, in Jesus’ Name, amen.”

Daily Prayer: “Oh, that You would bless me indeed,

and enlarge my territory,

that Your hand would be with me,

and that You would keep me from evil,

that I may not cause pain!”

The Prayer of Jabez, I Chronicles 4:10