Daily Manna · Day 39 · February 8
Guided Eye
“I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye.”
What do you really want when you ask God for guidance?
Maybe you have two good options and a deadline on Thursday. You have asked six people, and that has given you six opinions, a longer list of things to think about, and no peace at all.
Today's verse promises three things, and people usually notice only the third: "I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye." Instruction and teaching come first. They are slow, ordinary words, and guiding with the eye is what they build toward. The next verse tells you why that guidance can fail: "Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle." A look can only steer an animal that is watching your face. If you turn away, you will still be steered, but with metal in your mouth instead of a glance, and you will reach the same place the painful way. Do not skip how the psalm begins, either. David kept silent about his sin, and he says, "my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long." The promise of guidance comes after that silence was broken by confession. Clear eyes follow honest ones.
Perhaps, as you read that, something between you and God came to mind.
You are not being told to fix it all today. You are being invited to come and stand close enough to Him to catch His look. Bring Thursday with you when you come. The offer is open, and the best thing in it is His face, even more than His directions. He has promised, "I will guide thee," and He keeps His word to those who come near.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 39 is Peace, Be Still (Mark 4:39).