”I call on you, my God, for you will answer me; turn your ear to me and hear my prayer. Show me the wonders of your great love, you who save by your right hand those who take refuge in you from their foes. Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings from the wicked who are out to destroy me, from my mortal enemies who surround me.” Psalm 17: 6-9 NIV
“Keep me as the apple of your eye.”
What does that mean? According to Wikipedia:
The original Hebrew for this idiom, in all but Zechariah 2:8, was ‘iyshown ‘ayin (אישון עין), and can be literally translated as “Little Man of the Eye.” This is a reference to the tiny reflection of yourself that you can see in other people’s pupils. Other KJV translations of the word ‘iyshown include dark and obscure, as a reference to the darkness of the pupil. This Hebrew idiom is surprisingly close to the Latin version, pupilla, which means a little doll, and is a diminutive form of pupus, boy, or pupa, girl (the source also for our other sense of pupil to mean a schoolchild.) It was applied to the dark central portion of the eye within the iris because of the tiny image of oneself, like a puppet or marionette that one can see when looking into another person’s eye.
“A reflection of yourself that you can see in other people’s pupils.”
In other words, you are the apple, the reflection in God’s pupil of yourself, of God’s eye. Who you are is who is seen in the eyes of God.
Folks, that is profound! Do you realize that who you are when you look to God is the image in His pupil? It is a perfect image full of His righteousness through Christ our Lord. When you look to God to discover just who it is you are, when you look in His eyes and see your reflection staring back at you, you are looking at one made in the perfect image of the Creator of the Universe.
But the enemy, who is not flesh and blood, seeks to destroy that image by telling you lies about who you are. He will use any means necessary to create in you an image of yourself that is contrary to what God sees when He looks at you. The enemy will use deception, the words of others, distractions, the business of the world, and so on to paint an image of you that is wicked, evil, worthless. And when he is able to deceive you into believing his lies about yourself the feeling of not being worthy of God’s love and blessings can begin to take root in your life.
You need to continue to seek God in order to be able to see yourself in Him and know your worth, value and authority.
Take Peter for example:
“Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, ‘It is a ghost!’ And they cried out for fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘Be of good cheer! It is I; Do not be afraid.’ And Peter answered Him and said, ‘Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.’ So He said, ‘Come.’ And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, ‘Lord, save me!’ And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said, ‘O you of little faith, why did you doubt?’ And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased.’ Matthew 14: 25-32 NKJV
First off, I gotta hand it to Peter. The man walked on water! That’s more faith than most of us have ever displayed. But what happened? He took his eyes off Jesus. He let a little wind distract him from the truth of who he was and the authority he had over the elements.
Don’t do that. Don’t let some boisterous distraction make you lose your focus. When the enemy comes look at him for the imp he really is and say, “It is written! I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus!” Keep your eyes stayed on Him Who saved you and Him Who Created you.
“I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith. I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead! I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.
Let all who are spiritually mature agree on these things. If you disagree on some point, I believe God will make it plain to you. But we must hold on to the progress we have already made.
Dear brothers and sisters, pattern your lives after mine, and learn from those who follow our example. For I have told you often before, and I say it again with tears in my eyes, that there are many whose conduct shows they are really enemies of the cross of Christ. They are headed for destruction. Their god is their appetite, they brag about shameful things, and they think only about this life here on earth. But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior. He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control.” Apostle Paul to the church of Philippi; Philippians 3:9-21 NLT
Remember, you are the apple of God’s eye, the reflection of who you are is in His pupil. Don’t let the enemy try to convince you otherwise. God’s love for you is unconditional. Christ’s death is saving. And all this not because you deserved it, but because God found you worth it.
“He found him in a desert land and in the wasteland, a howling wilderness; He encircled him, He instructed him, He kept him as the apple of His eye.” Deuteronomy 32:10 NKJV
In His Service,
Rebecca Hamilton, Founder/ Executive Director
For Every Great Battle, There is a Great Victory!!