Scripture
“Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is good, your whole body is filled with light. But when it is bad, your body is filled with darkness. Make sure that the light you think you have is not actually darkness. If you are filled with light, with no dark corners, then your whole life will be radiant, as though a floodlight were filling you with light.” Luke 11:34-36
Observation
In this passage, Jesus Himself shows the importance of selective vision. The way we see things determines the way our heart will be. If our eyes are fixed into bad things, darkness will come into our hearts. If our eyes are fixed into good things, light will illuminate everything, even the dark corners of our hearts. Jesus also warns about the possibility of fooling ourselves confusing what is darkness with light. We cannot say, “I’m have light because I can fix my eyes in bad things without compromising my heart.” The fruit of our lives will reflect what we have in our hearts. If our fruit is love, peace, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, we have light in our heart, and our eyes are fixed in good things. But if we lack the fruit, then we must recognize that our heart has darkened corners because our eyes have been fixed in bad things.
Application
Our sinful nature is fed everyday by what we see and it’s especially attracted to what Paul calls, “the lust of the eye.” We are prompt to see things with jealousy, or with envy, or with lust, or even with selfishness. The problem arises when our eyes become trained to see things with a dark angle and a bad habit is created. Our eye feeds our hearts, so if we are not careful, our mind can become an X rated theater, or a playground for envy. This issue is at the very core of our temptations and we are able to train our eyes to be fixed only in what is good, our lives will be radiant, as though a floodlight were feeling us with the Lord’s light.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, please forgive me for my tendency to fix my eyes in the wrong things. Help me to have and honor a covenant with my eyes. Help me to always see people with the eyes of a servant, not with the eyes of a master. Teach me how to see material things with admiration, not with indignation or envy. Let me fix my thoughts in whatever is pure, kind, good, true, and worthy of praise. Let my heart be filled with light and expel any darkened corners. Let me be rich in the fruit that your light produces in me. Let me be more like you! Amen.
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