To Encourage You

Proverbs 15:3 “The eyes of the LORD are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.”

How many times have you used one of the following phrases to begin a sentence: “In my view . . . “ or “The way I see it . . . “?  Well, when you think about it, any time we begin a sentence in this way we’re very likely headed for trouble. 

First of all, which one of us has perfect vision, even physically?  I know that without my glasses, things are blurry just on the other side of the room.  But even if I had 20/20 vision, there are so many things I cannot see.  For example, I can’t see behind my back, in the other room, or anywhere else I’m not physically present.  I can’t see the motives of a person’s heart, nor can I see someone’s thoughts. I can’t see the future. And I can’t see God. 

However, as limited as my – and your – vision are physically, it’s even worse spiritually.  In fact, spiritually, we all come into this world completely and utterly blind.  The Bible tells us that “the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers” (2 Corinthians 4:4).  It also says that at one time we were all in darkness (Ephesians 5:8).  Yet, the Bible also says that often the spiritually blind actually think they see things clearly, which is a very sad situation, indeed.  Jesus said of the Church at Laodicea “For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked” (Revelation 3:17). 

By contrast, Proverbs 15:3 tells us that God’s eyes are everywhere, and He sees everything.  Psalm 139:11-12 tells us that “even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day.”  Unlike man, who can see the outward appearance only, “the Lord looks on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).  And God, alone, sees the future. He declares “the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done” (Isaiah 46:10).  So, considering our limitations in comparison to God’s limitlessness, wouldn’t you just love to have His perspective on things rather than just your own?

The superiority of God’s perspective over man’s is highlighted in 1 Corinthians 2, where it tells us that “the rulers of this age . . . crucified the Lord of Glory.”  How blind can one be to do everything in one’s power to snuff out the One and Only “Light of the World” (John 8:12)?    It is indeed a miracle of God that He opens the eyes of the spiritually blind when they put their faith and trust in Him.  The Bible says of believers, that “the Father . . . has qualified (us) to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son” (Colossians 1:12-13). How wonderful is this!  How awesome to be able to finally see the glory of the invisible God, for that’s just what happens when one believes!  As we are told with these words: “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6). 

So, how’s your vision?  How do you see things?  Have your eyes been truly opened to the glory of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, or are you so blind that you see nothing in any of this for yourself?  If you don’t long to see such things, may God open your eyes to your own spiritual blindness.  And if you’re following someone else, some other “spiritual guide” than the Light of the World, be very careful.  Jesus has described such people in this way: “they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit” (Matthew 15:14).

You see, the very reason Jesus came was to “to proclaim good news to the poor . . . to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor”(Luke 4:18-19).  And He will do this for anyone who will trust in Him and believe.  Today you, too, can be one just like John Newton, a wicked slave trader who was gloriously saved and then wrote these well-known words of praise to the God who had turned his soul from darkness to light: “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.   I once was lost, but now am found, t’was blind but now I see!”