You Are Meant To Be Like An Eagle
I imagine that after God created the eagle, He stepped back for a second and smiled and said to Himself, “God, I did good on this one.”
For December, I usually don’t write a Friday Post. I will post an advent related devotional written by someone else. But, when I woke up this morning, I saw the above photos of this eagle, I was immediately reminded of the magnificence of God, as He in Scripture is likened to two animals: the lion and the eagle. It is without a doubt that God is likened to the eagle because this animal has many characteristics that we also find in the character of God. But going a step further, there’s a lot about the character of an eagle that we can apply to our lives.
The eagle is a nurturer, God is a nurturer-
This is getting a little deep but I’d encourage you to dig in, but the Holy Spirit is a Spirit, yes- this Spirit is not a woman. However, the nature of Holy Spirit is feminine-like in the sense that HE [the Holy Spirit] is gentle, is delicate, wants to be wanted, and comforts. The way a woman nurtures her children and those around her, the way a woman wants to be wanted and loved- this nature is also in God. He, like an eagle nurtures those that are His.
Here we see Moses talking about God, likening Him to an eagle, in the context of a nurturer:
““He found him in a desert land, and in the howling waste of the wilderness; he encircled him, he cared for him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions, the Lord alone guided him, no foreign god was with him.”
The eagle has excellent vision, God is vision-
The eagle has sharp piercing eyes and those eyes can see tremendously. Humans can only see three basic colors, eagles can see five. They have 5 times more light sensitive cells (1 million) per square mm of retina than we do. They also have two sets of eyes, one for resting and one for flying against wind and in storms.
We too have two sets of eyes: physical eyes and spiritual eyes. Of course, we can’t see everything, we only can see one side of a thing, or a person. But when we go by our spiritual eyes and not by what we see in the physical then that’s faith. Holy Spirit dwelling on the inside of us is the spiritual eyesight we need and this is where God strengthens our faith when we are waiting on Him for something, and, this is where God gives us discernment and warning about people or staying away from certain situations.
Eagles don’t look back, God made us to press on towards our high calling in Christ-
Many other types of birds of prey look over their shoulders to see if they are being followed, eagles don’t. They are that confident.
What are you looking over your shoulder to see? People who need to be kept in your past, old mindsets that need to be broken? When we know who we are in Father, Son and Holy Spirit we don’t look back. If we do, it’s for a second to see how far God has brought us, not stay stuck, or to see who is chasing us. The devil will always scheme and chase us but no need to give that sick sprit credence, when we keep flying forward God has us and we will soar like eagles.
Eagles live high up in between rocks, God sets Himself up high-
This is a mindset. Eagles don’t hang out on the ground with chickens. They may swoop down to eat a chicken but they don’t associate with them. When you get into the Word of God and read it for yourself, especially the Old Testament, you get a sense of God and how He operates and thinks. God doesn’t hang out with chickens. His mindset of who He is and His nature is far above lowly thinking.
I’m not saying be arrogant, far from it. But what I am saying is how you think of yourself is what you do for yourself. If you have eagle thinking, God thinking, you won’t hang around chickens either, and no matter your socio-economic standing, you will set yourself above to soar.
These are just 4 characteristics of eagles and their aligned nature to God. There’s so much more to their nature- they’re loyal, extremely smart, bold, courageous and powerful in the animal kingdom, they are skilled at fishing (who are you fishing for to tell about Christ?), and they are patient.
Lots to ponder here and how this majestic creature is likened to the nature of God. There’s certainly more than enough from the nature of eagles that we can take away and apply to our own lives.