Matthew 6:22,23-The eye is the lamp of the body. 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!
When I first started this blog, I titled it “Perspective”. One of the things that I believe to my very core is that we need to see things the way that God sees things. We need His perspective. The burning desire of my heart is to see God the way that He is, not the way I have interpreted Him to be. I want to see people the way that God sees them, instead of what things look like on the surface; and I want to see myself the way that God sees me instead of being held captive by others' (or my own) opinions of myself!
I believe that when I see God the way that He is, I no longer need to see Him act in the manner and timing that I think is appropriate, because I trust that He loves me more than I could ever imagine and He is faithful faithful faithful! When I see others the way that He sees them, I can love them in the way that He loves them; and when I see myself the way that He sees me, I am free to be who He has created me to be!
When I read this passage of Scripture today, I saw it in a slightly different light than I have before.
These verses are nestled in a section of Scripture where Jesus is talking about where we put our treasures. He says that, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”... and then He makes this statement about the eye being the lamp of the body....
I've heard it said that you are what you focus on. Literally, what you continually set before your eyes makes it's way into your worldview.
Let me put it this way: my wife Emily and I enjoy the tv show “Friends”, and we have several of the seasons on dvd. I can always tell when I have been watching too much “Friends” when I start talking like Chandler.
So, you say, I've heard this sermon a million times before... Of course, we should be careful of what we put before our eyes; but let me ask you this: What kinds of thought patterns do you allow to run rampant in your mind?
Jesus is of course talking about our literal eyeballs in this passage, but I believe it goes much deeper than that. What about my perspective? What about the way that I see the world? Am I seeking God's perspective in all things? Or do I choose to look at things through my own worldview, or through the worldview of those around me?
Is it wrong to get counsel from wise men and women? Absolutely not! We are designed to live in community, to glean from the wisdom of those we trust. The point I'm trying to make is that whether things are looking up for me or looking bleak, my life can be full of light if my eye is full of light. If my eyes are set on the Light of the world (John 8:12), then my whole body will be full of light; and my circumstances are subject to that light instead of the other way around.
Lord, today I declare that I treasure Your perspective! Let my perspective be full of Your light. Open my eyes to see myself the way that you see me. Open my eyes to see my circumstances the way that You see them. Open my eyes to see the people around me the way that You see them; and open my eyes to see You the way that You really are!!!!
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