Revelation 4:6-8 “And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,   who was and is and is to come!”

This is one of my favorite passages in the whole Bible. Mainly because no matter what season I am in, this brings me back to what matters. Back to reality. Back to who my God is. No matter what is going on around me, it reminds me to look to the Father; to lift my head higher than my own little life and look up at God and his perspective in eternity. When I do that, all my problems seem to get smaller and the idea of spending forever with God gets bigger. It’s not that my problems don’t matter to God because they do and he cares deeply for me, but what I have found is that often times the problems I have can be helped when I simply lift my head to look at Jesus; when I remember who Jesus is.

I’ll get back to that passage in a little later. But I need to back up real quick.

In this new season of life of moving into my own place, starting a job, and starting to figure out what post-grad life looks like, I’ve been caught up in getting comfortable and began to lose sight of my need for Jesus. Even in this scary time of transition, I’ve somehow convinced myself that I finally have this all figured out.

Before graduation, I’d been told by older, wiser women to be prepared because people’s faiths will begin to look differently after college. People begin to love comfort and ease and security more than before and more than Jesus. I’ve been so fearful that I would fall into that, and then as I have been going through this season where I have found myself not relying on Jesus the way I did in the past, it launched me into this phase of wanting so badly to live fully surrendered and fully ready to do whatever God has called me. My heart behind it was pure and the willingness was there.

But it was focused on doing. But God said “just be”. Over and over now God has been taking me to different passages and showing me various things, but they have all had the same message. “Rest in me. Abide in me. Apart from me you can do nothing.” I realized I had been missing the point. The foundation of our being and what we were saved for is to simply know God. Jesus says in John 17:3 “And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” That’s it. That’s eternal life! Knowing God. Of course! That’s where joy is found. That is what allows us to do anything else in life. Know God, enjoy God, and love God because He first loved us. Then and only then can I love others; can I make disciples; can I live a surrendered life willing to do anything for God.

Knowing God is what allows me to beat sin. The more I know and enjoy God, the more satisfied I am in him and the more the lesser pleasures of this earth begin to fade. Romans 8:13 says, “But if by the spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body you will live.” We were never meant to do anything on our own. We can’t even overcome our sin on our own. God has to help us by his spirit love Him most. But sin corrupted that perfect relationship with God and so that was all we knew—doing things on our own for ourselves. Until God interceded and won us back through the blood of Jesus on the cross. And now, even though I have access to God all the time, I have to fight the sinful, greedy nature in my flesh that wants to satisfy myself by my own way; by my old ways. I have to fight to rest and to just be with God. But I have found that the fight is worth it because the joy I found on the other side is so much better than anything else I have tasted or seen.

So now I go back to that verse in Revelation. Those 4 four creatures sit around the throne of God literally for all of eternity and are full of eyes seeing everything God is doing around and within. And that causes them to never cease praising Him. God is always on the move. He is always working to redeem his earth and win back the lost children he’s always loved. Even though I don’t have eyes all around me and I am not sitting by the throne of God, God is still doing things all around me. And the times that I am least focused on myself and most focused on Him are the times that bring me the greatest joy as I marvel at the glorious work of my Father. That’s the place I want to get to.

But it doesn’t start by doing anything, it starts by simply being in my Father’s presence.