Following the Sun

I haven’t blogged in ages. But this morning, I feel like the Lord revealed something to me that was too good not to share. I’ve been hearing the Lord telling me to “turn my affections” towards him. I’ve heard that phrase used in teachings that I’ve been listening to and I just wasn’t sure what it meant. It made sense in my head sort of but I wanted it to make sense in my heart. I believe that true intimacy with the Lord is found in this statement of “turning our affections towards him”.
I was meditating on this on the way to work this morning, and asking God to teach me what it meant to turn my affections towards Him. Immediately God gave me a picture in my mind, a vision, of what this means. I love when he speaks in pictures to me because I’m such a visual person.
In this vision, I was seeing a sunflower. Have you ever seen a sunflower and how it reacts with the sun? We have a sunflower growing in our yard and I’ve gotten to watch it and how it responds to the sun. It actually follows the sun with its face. When I take the dog out in the morning as the sun is just beginning to rise, the sunflower is sort of droopy and facing the ground, but as the sun rises, the sunflower lifts its face and it follows the direct of the sun. It is truly a miraculous thing to watch. It can’t help but be drawn to what the sun has to give it.
Here is a link to a very dramatic look at a time lapse of sunflowers

I think turning our affections towards the Lord looks just like that. We are starting in a position of looking at our problems, our situations, and our focus is on ourselves. But as the sun (the Lord, in all his glory) makes himself evident, how can we keep from looking at him? When we turn our affections towards the Lord, we are choosing to turn off our mind to what’s going on in our lives and choosing to turn our attention on him. When we do that, we are able to just soak in his presence without distraction. We are able to find a new realm of intimacy with Him. I believe that in this act, we will be able to reach new depths in our relationship with Him.

Hebrews 12:2 “Fixing our eyes on Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God”

Only by fixing the eyes of our hearts on Jesus can He begin to perfect us through intimacy of knowing Him.