Message: Eyesight is important in order to see clearly, but we also need proper lighting to see where we are going. If the room is dark, we aren’t able to navigate our way around as well, and we are likely to bump into things no matter how familiar we are with the layout. Luke 11 uses our understanding that a light on a lampstand is the best way to properly light up a room. Then verse 34 tells us that the eye is the lamp of the body, so as long as our eyes are good, our whole body will be full of light and therefore able to see clearly to navigate through life.
Command: Read the word and allow the truth of the gospel to light up our souls so that our spiritual eyes can see accurately.
Promise: When you receive the truth of the gospel it illuminates your spiritual eyes so that you can see your way.
Warning: When we reject the truth of the gospel it is compared to putting a basket over the light source and this causes us to walk in darkness where we stumble around because we are unable to navigate through.
Application: As I read this passage this morning I thought about all of the times I have been in the dark and things didn’t look as they should have. My daughter and I were taking a walk a few nights ago, and in the dark, there were times when a tree or a large rock looked like a person or animal standing or hunched over. Without the proper light we couldn’t see the fine details and the shadowy images distorted our view of what was actually in front of us. Although we weren’t necessarily fearful during our walk, our dark, distorted vision caused us to see things based on what we were familiar with, so our minds automatically made inaccurate assumptions to interpret what we were seeing in the dark. We had some light from the streetlamps and the moon so we could see enough to walk, but what we were seeing was not at all accurate- although I will tell you, it looked as real as can be in the moment until we got closer and saw enough detail to interpret that the shapes we saw were actually trees and rocks. We were vulnerable to potential dangers around us that could have been lurking in the dark, and we also perceived other dangers that weren’t even real. This is SO true of our spiritual eyesight! If we are reading the word the chances are pretty good that we have accepted the basic truth of the gospel and we believe that Jesus came to save us. We can navigate around in the dark without crashing into things, but there is so much more truth in the gospel, and when we read it and most importantly, when we receive it as truth and live it, the word illuminates more and more so that our spiritual eyes light up our way and correct the distortions we were seeing in the dark.
Spiritual Vision
Message: Eyesight is important in order to see clearly, but we also need proper lighting to see where we are going. If the room is dark, we aren’t able to navigate our way around as well, and we are likely to bump into things no matter how familiar we are with the layout. Luke 11 uses our understanding that a light on a lampstand is the best way to properly light up a room. Then verse 34 tells us that the eye is the lamp of the body, so as long as our eyes are good, our whole body will be full of light and therefore able to see clearly to navigate through life.
Command: Read the word and allow the truth of the gospel to light up our souls so that our spiritual eyes can see accurately.
Promise: When you receive the truth of the gospel it illuminates your spiritual eyes so that you can see your way.
Warning: When we reject the truth of the gospel it is compared to putting a basket over the light source and this causes us to walk in darkness where we stumble around because we are unable to navigate through.
Application: As I read this passage this morning I thought about all of the times I have been in the dark and things didn’t look as they should have. My daughter and I were taking a walk a few nights ago, and in the dark, there were times when a tree or a large rock looked like a person or animal standing or hunched over. Without the proper light we couldn’t see the fine details and the shadowy images distorted our view of what was actually in front of us. Although we weren’t necessarily fearful during our walk, our dark, distorted vision caused us to see things based on what we were familiar with, so our minds automatically made inaccurate assumptions to interpret what we were seeing in the dark. We had some light from the streetlamps and the moon so we could see enough to walk, but what we were seeing was not at all accurate- although I will tell you, it looked as real as can be in the moment until we got closer and saw enough detail to interpret that the shapes we saw were actually trees and rocks. We were vulnerable to potential dangers around us that could have been lurking in the dark, and we also perceived other dangers that weren’t even real. This is SO true of our spiritual eyesight! If we are reading the word the chances are pretty good that we have accepted the basic truth of the gospel and we believe that Jesus came to save us. We can navigate around in the dark without crashing into things, but there is so much more truth in the gospel, and when we read it and most importantly, when we receive it as truth and live it, the word illuminates more and more so that our spiritual eyes light up our way and correct the distortions we were seeing in the dark.
