The Eyes of my Heart
We currently live in a society which rejects truth and accepts lies. The irony in this is the individual person desires truth. No one wants to be lied to. We want truth in our relationships, in our work, in our pastors, in our politicians, in our teachers and so forth. Truth be told, truth requires you to stand on your own. Why? Because when a lie is told, the only justice is truth. The question is, what happens when you are the only keeper of truth present? Are you ready to stand alone or is that not your gift? Our current state of truth deprivation reminds me of an old quote I heard some time ago which said, “a person is smart but people are stupid.”
The person with a weak resolve typically sees wrong, injustice, and sin but fails to respond with rebuke and correction. Which is bad on its own. However, The person with weak eyes has been so blinded by sin they no longer recognize ungodliness. As a matter of fact they have a preference to the wicked and evil of this world.
As bad as this sounds there is a bright side. Wherever there is darkness, light isn’t too far off. Where there are those who have weak eyes, there are also those who have healthy eyes.
“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! (Matthew 6:22-23)
The question is, how do we attain and maintain healthy eyes? It’s pretty straight forward if you think about it on the surface. At some point in our lives, sin made us uncomfortable. You knew certain things were off limits. You knew you shouldn’t do drugs, have sex before marriage, steal what wasn’t yours and so forth. As you grew older you may have met someone who did one, or two of these sinful deeds. This is where people being stupid comes into play. Though you knew it was wrong, the pressure of looking different or judgmental, coupled with your natural curiosity to the unknown led you to partake in what you knew to be sinful.
The first time leads to the second. And pretty soon you are habitual. Spiritually you are scarred and disconnected from God. The further you move into your sinful life, the further you move away from God. All of a sudden, God seems foreign. But sin feels good, and is familiar.
For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. (Romans 1:21)
Let’s brighten this up now and talk about our healthy eyes or how to get them. We’re gonna get some spiritual lasik. The first step is repentance.
Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, (Romans 3:19-21)
Repentance is not only an action we take but is a tool we use. When we repent we are not merely saying sorry to God, We are turning away from our sin. The scripture is clear, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.(1 John 1:9)”. When we repent our sins are blotted out and God remembers them no more. We no longer need to feel ashamed of our past actions or current failures because God has forgiven us! We not only turn away from our sins as they are blotted out, but we are refreshed. What a great tool repentance is. All we have to do is use it.
The next step we must take is to guard our way with the Word of God. Many times we turn to God in our moments of weakness, however we remain weak. As soon as the struggle passes by, we pass on the same God we pleaded to aid us. I can only imagine God sits back and scratches his head. We ought to treasure our relationship with God.
Lastly, we should continue to seek God. As long as we continue seeking God we will not wander from His presence. It is the moments we become preoccupied with other needs, we begin to drift away. Our greatest need is Jesus. There is no equal. Never forget that.
