Eyesight is Imperative

Luke 11:33-36, ESV

No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.

In this passage, Jesus is saying that the way we see directly determines whether there is light or darkness within us—which directly determines whether there is light or darkness coming from us. So how is our light?

Is it bright, or has it dimmed? Does it seem like we’re not shining the way we used to? If not, then it might be time to go to the Great Physician to get a check-up of our eyesight. We’ve been through so much over the last couple of years, so maybe we need to ask ourselves some very pointed questions.

How are we seeing the world?

How are we seeing God?

How are we seeing other people?

How are we seeing our lives?

If the answers to these questions are alarming to us, then the next question to ask ourselves is where have we fixed our eyes?

Where we fix our eyes will become the lens through which we see.

That’s why Paul said that in order to run our race of faith we have to fix our eyes on Jesus (Hebrews 12:2). When we focus our eyes on Jesus, then He becomes the lens through which we see everything else—a lens of hope, love, peace, joy, etc. The light within us will be bright, and we will exude that light.

But when we fix our eyes on our circumstances, our stress, our fear, or even the other voices we're listening to, then those things become the lens through which we see everything else—a lens of skepticism, despair, frustration, hopelessness, accusation, offense, etc. The light within us turns dark, and we exude that darkness.

So today, may we take note of what lens we're looking through, and may we be purposeful to make adjustments where needed. May we cultivate the light within us, so we can exude that light wherever God has us!

Oh Lord, please help us keep our eyes fixed on you, so we can light up the world around us from the Light that lives within us.