Justin Tucker, LHBC Worship Pastor

Matthew 6:22-23
The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 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!

One of my least favorite things to do in life is go to a doctor. Any doctor. It doesn’t matter if it’s my PCP, my dentist, or my optometrist. I don’t want to go. Things have to get pretty bad before I make an appointment with any of them. Well, a few weeks ago my contacts started fogging up in my eyes and seeing became difficult. My eyes were constantly watering, itching, and hurting. I wasn’t seeing things clearly. What I could see was becoming more and more fuzzy and distorted. I couldn’t read the confidence monitor from the stage on Sunday mornings. I was having trouble seeing the tv at night. I was having trouble focusing on my computer screen. I was constantly closing one eye and then the other. Then…it got dangerous. I had trouble seeing at night when I was driving or when it was raining. I started to put other people at risk and that burdened me. I could have an accident and injure someone or myself. My family could get hurt because I had made poor decisions and I wasn’t seeing clearly. 

Well, I finally broke down and went to the eye doctor. Turns out that I hadn’t been in seven years. While my vision hadn’t changed much in that time, the lenses that I had been looking through had become dirty and foggy and I had lost clarity. It was no one’s fault but my own. I had made the poor choice of focusing on the tasks and the busyness of life instead of taking care of my vision.

Isn’t that what we do in our spiritual life so often? We get distracted by things in life and we lose our focus. We get so caught up in our jobs and hobbies and families that we take our eyes off of Jesus. We start looking at what others have or what they have accomplished or we get caught up in what once was. Either way, we start to take our eyes off of Jesus and we start looking elsewhere. That is s why it is so important that we lean into Hebrews 12:1-2, Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

So how do we protect our vision? Well, we certainly don’t take 7 years off from seeing the Great Physician like I did with the eye doctor. We have to spend time reading His Word and hiding His Word in our hearts. We have to spend time growing in community with other believers. We have to spend time sharing our stories of life change with others. We have to pursue the things that Jesus has called us to and we have to model our lives to be reflections of His. Whenever we find ourselves having a hard time seeing clearly, all we have to do is turn our eyes on Him.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus

Look full in His wonderful face

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim

In the light of His glory and grace

PRAYER FOR TODAY:

Heavenly Father, help me to keep my eyes focused on You. Help me to keep my eyes on the things thatYou have called me to. Bind up the enemy as he tries to distract me and get me off target. Draw me to Your heart, Lord Jesus. In Your name I pray, amen.

MEMORY VERSE OF THE WEEK:

Psalm 96:4-

For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods.