A covenant with my eyes

I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid? – Job 31.1

Job says at one point in the midst of his lengthy discourses ‘I know God knows all, but I will still try to defend myself about your false charges.’

His friends were convinced that he had sinned or else God would not be allowing all of these things to happen to him. He knew that was not the case.

Among his defences were the words we see here – ‘I have made a covenant with my eyes, why then should I think upon a maid?’

It is hard to imagine that Job had the same problems with his lusts of the eyes that we men face today.

But with this attitude Job have a big head start if he was suddenly transported to 2016. He had decided beforehand and covenanted with his eyes that he would not succumb to lust by looking at and dwelling on women. He already decided that he would not feed his flesh.

What if we men today had that same covenant with our eyes? What if covenanted with God and our own eyes that we would not be distracted the sights we see around us?

We cannot help what we are going to see today. We can choose the right places and situations as much as possible, but chances are we men are going to see something that is going to draw our eyes today.

But we can help what we do about it. We can’t help what we see, but we can help what we look at. We can’t help what we see, but we can help what we choose to think about.

Maybe it’s time to consider that covenant for us today?