Eye Exam

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 A few weeks ago I was nervously sitting in the optometrist chair as the nurse asked me to read the chart. The row of letters might as well have been written in Chinese because I couldn’t read any of them. She went to a larger row of letters but it still looked foreign to me. Finally, the nurse pulled that little pin-hole wheel over my eye and ta-da. The letters were in English again! I could see them all so clearly. Did you know you can get the same kind of clarity about your life as the pin-hole wheel gave me during my exam? All it takes is for you to look at life through your spiritual lenses.

Your spiritual lenses refer to how you view the world as a child of God. God is a spirit and we need to look at everything the way God does– spiritually. “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”‭‭(Rom 12‬:‭2‬ ‭NLT‬). Spiritual lenses allow us to view the world for what it really is…a temporary home. We live in the physical world and everything we do is dominated by what we can see and feel but the spiritual realm– the part we can’t see– is much bigger and it’s eternal. Think of it as an ant colony in the middle of a park. The ants’ entire world is the park but unbeknownst to them there is much more beyond their little park in the middle of the city. At any moment their colony can be destroyed but the ants’ only concern is going about their daily activities. Unfortunately, in this analogy we’re the ants. 


Take a look around. Everything you see will be as short lived as that ant colony.  Your car, your house, your  possessions, your job will not be around a hundred years from now. We certainly won’t be here. Sounds depressing? That’s because you’re looking through your physical lenses. What I just said isn’t completely accurate. You’ll be here a hundred years from now and the next million years because our spirit never dies. Death is the exchange of our temporary shell for a body that’s eternal (1 Cor 15:53,54). Even this big rock we live on will eventually be destroyed. Ironically, we spend much more time focusing on this short lived physical world than we do on the spiritual. 


Our lives are occupied by our jobs, family, friends, hobbies and entertainment. We concern ourselves with getting ahead or who’s getting ahead of us. We live according to worldly standards and not God’s. Worldly people have one basic principle: It’s your life so do what makes you happy. When you view things spiritually you realize your body doesn’t belong to you (1Cor 6:19,20) so you can’t go certain places, do certain things, nor live certain lifestyles. Put on your spiritual lenses and you’ll see that all things work together for your good (Rom8:28) and you’ll have peace in the middle of your storm. You’ll see that God has plans for us that are far greater than anyone can imagine (1Cor 2:9). You’ll see just how shortsighted our physical lenses really are. 


Think about it.

Comments

  1. AnonymousApril 10, 2024 at 4:24 PM

    God does exceedingly & abundantly above all things. Great post!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnonymousApril 16, 2024 at 9:14 PM

      Amen and thank you– Michael

      Delete
  2. AnonymousApril 11, 2024 at 6:53 AM

    Yes Amen

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousApril 14, 2024 at 8:48 PM

    How do you know if you truly have your spiritual lenses on when early in your walk with Christ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnonymousApril 16, 2024 at 9:10 PM

      Great question. One of the ways you will know is that you’ll begin not to like to do some of the things you did before you got saved. You’ll start to see how worldly those things are and your desire for them will begin to shrink. Another sign is that your understanding of the Bible will increase.

      Delete

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