Apple of Your Eye

Apologies for the delay - this is for yesterday's reading!

Tuesday January 19th

Genesis 39:1-41:16

Matthew 12:46-13:23

Psalm 17:1-15

Proverbs 3:33-35

Why do you read the Bible?

Do you read it because it's a part of your routine? Because you feel like you should? Because you want to learn? Because you want to grow closer to God? 

Today, I learned something old - those who hear the word and understand it are the ones who produce a crop. It made me realize that when I'm reading the word, my goal needs to be to understand it. From understanding God's word, we can be fruitful. This means we can learn how much he loves us, and once we understand that, we can't help but share with others.

In Psalm 17:8, David asks God to "keep me as the apple of your eye". I didn't understand this when I first read it, so I did a little reading of commentaries and studying what exactly this meant. The first thing I learned was that "keep" implies that we are already the apple of God's eye. He's not asking God to make him the apple of his eye, because he believes he already is. This is such wise insight from a guy who hasn't even witnessed the depth of God's love through His sacrifice of His son. 

Secondly, to be the apple of someone's eye means "little man of the eye" and usually refers to the reflection of yourself that you can see in other people's pupils. David is asking God to watch him so closely and not lose sight of him.

Thirdly, being the apple of God's eye means being protected. Who knows if God has eyelashes, eyebrows, or cheekbones to act as protection, but as humans, we can imagine the eye being very important and very protected in the design of our bodies. Just because we are the apple of God's eye, it doesn't mean that we won't deal with attacks, or that we will win all of our earthly battles, but you are in God's sights and He is with you through the battles. 

I encourage you to read God's Word with the goal of understanding it so that you may develop fruit in your own life. Don't be afraid to ask questions of fellow believers if you don't understand something in the Bible. Or search online for deeper discovery.

Let's pray: God, keep me as the apple of your eye. Help me to know that You are my protector. Help me to understand how valuable I am to you. Help me to study your Word and grow in knowledge and understanding so that I may love others and produce great fruit. Amen.