I Need Spiritual Glasses
Episode 10
As I've aged, my physical eyesight has deteriorated. And I find I also struggle with my spiritual eyesight. This episode explains the problems that lead to worsening spiritual eyesight and also gives the prescription for improved vision.
Show Notes
Hey Sister in this second half of life: how’s your eyesight?
God said to Moses: Exodus 4:11- Then the LORD said to him, "Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?
My spiritual eyesight gets both better and worse with age:
Life and experience give me greater insight
BUT disappointment, poor health, broken hearts, weariness, anger, you name it: blurs my vision.
Abraham had difficulty seeing. The longer his wait stretched, the worse he saw. He needed glasses!
Genesis 15:5 ESV- And he(God) brought him(Abe) outside and said, "Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be."
From that moment on, all Abram had to do was look toward the heavens to see what God had planned. He would need that visual reminder,
He went from NEAR SIGHTED to FAR SIGHTED
13 years before God changed his name to Abraham and finally granted him and Sarah a son, whom they named Isaac.
40 years before Isaac married.
20 years before the birth of Esau and Jacob.
God made Abram wait 73 years from vision to grandchild, the hope of generations that would continue.
If Abe only looked at the wait and delay, he’d never been able to focus.
He needed to look at the stars.
This idea was important in my book Unceasing: A Parent’s Guide To Conquer Worry and Pray with Power. Our attitude that needs to get fixed for our prayer life to be powerful. Our vision corrected.
In view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now. (Philippians 1:5, NASB)
How did corrected vision affect my prayer life?
Likewise, with our own children, we pray not in view of their problems or our failures. Instead, we look toward the Lord, and pray in view of the gospel—the redemptive power of Jesus. This is the Jesus who “is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20, NIV).
Think how this principle works in other areas.
Am I looking at problems
Am i looking at finances
Am I looking at disappointments, hurts, broken relationships.
All those ruin my vision
We know we can go to Jesus to have our blindness healed. One of my favorite healing stories is in Mark:
Mark 8:22-25 ESV- And they came to Bethsaida. And some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him.
23- And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village, and when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, "Do you see anything?"
24- And he looked up and said, "I see people, but they look like trees, walking."
This fascinates me. Did Jesus mess up? Tried but couldn’t quite pull it off?
I don’t know the mind of God, but what I get out of it:
Not all healings happen completely or immediately
I can be honest with Jesus
Advantage- keep coming back to Jesus. He’s still there.
25- Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.
I feel like I need Mark 8:25. Quite often. People look like trees. I can’t see the forest of needs and service and ministry for the trees of weariness and hurts.
So I come back to Jesus. Ask Him to lay His hands on my eyes. To Open my eyes. To RESTORE my eyes.
When I was young I had vision of ways to serve and energy to dream
Now I’m old (older) and I need restoration
I need spiritual glasses
I need to look up
I need Jesus.
Leave you with a few scripture of the Lord’s promises to help us see:
Psalm 119:105- Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
Isaiah 9:2- The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.
Psalm 146:8- the LORD opens the eyes of the blind. The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down; the LORD loves the righteous.
Isaiah 42:6-7- "I am the LORD; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, 7 to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.
Sister, we don’t need to sit in darkness of a prison of our own making. Healing is here. Spiritual glasses are available for the asking.
Like Abraham take your complaint to God, then listen to His answer
Like the blind man tell Jesus you still can’t see well and let Him keep working.
And then walk by the LIGHT He gives.