An optometrist once told me when I was thirty-six that when I reach the age of forty, I will need to wear glasses. I do not think he was a psychic, but when I reached forty, I needed to wear glasses! Sometimes I wonder if he had said fifty instead of forty that I would have saved myself a decade of having to wear glasses!?
The
reason I say that is my cardiologist prescribed a new medicine for me, and I
asked about the side effects. He said, “I can’t tell you that; if I told you,
you would have them!” We laughed, and all he said after that was not to worry
about it. When I got a second opinion from Dr. Google, he was right! I got
those side effects once I found out what they were!
I
had a love/hate relationship with my eyeglasses; my lenses were thick which
made my eyeballs loom larger than life! The weight from the lenses irritated my
nose by leaving deep impressions in the shape of my nose pads. I bought some expensive
light frames, but it only helped psychologically. I was tired of adjusting and
cleaning my glasses all the time.
Along
with my progressive lenses, I had to get transitional lenses which worked great
in direct sunlight but not while driving or riding in a car. Then one day, another
optometrist suggested I try wearing some breathable contact lenses. They were
not only easier to get on and off, but I didn’t have to take them out every
night before going to bed.
Now,
my ophthalmologist doesn’t like me leaving my contacts in at the end of the
day, but I do. My peripheral vision was no longer hindered by those expensive
frames, and I could wear whatever sunglasses I wanted. The downside to contacts
was having to adjust to monovision. Unlike glasses, I had one eye for reading
and the other for distance. That took some getting used to, but I wanted to get
away from having to wear glasses so badly that I willed myself to adapt to monovision.
It’s funny what you can do if you want it bad enough (cf. Jn 7:17).
Now,
pretend, if you will, that I am your spiritual optometrist or ophthalmologist
for a moment. The Creator God wants for you and me to see the world around us
in the same manner that He does. For that to happen, it is quintessential that
we have experienced spiritual regeneration (cf. Jn 3:3), or none of this will
make any sense.
To
see the world as it is according to Yahweh, our Creator God, we must have the
capability of doing so. That capability is not something anyone is naturally
born with; it is derived supernaturally. In other words, this ability only
comes when we receive God’s Holy Spirit into our heart and our eyes are open to
the truth (cf. Eph 2:8-9).
Prior
to conversion, we are all spiritually blind due to unbelief (cf. 2 Cor 4:4). People
still try to circumvent this spiritual blindness with corrective lenses, but
apart from the Divine surgery of salvation, the natural man (1 Cor 2:14) will
never see what the supernatural man can see if he is willing and obedient.
As
your spiritual optometrist or ophthalmologist, I strongly recommend that you
look at the world around you exclusively through the lens of the Word of God to
evaluate, to test, to measure, and to understand if what you are seeing and
experiencing in the world are approved of God. We need these glasses to give
meaning and sense to the things around us.
We
know that the world does not look at itself in the way that God does; to be
brief, we will just say that it has something to do with sin. God is holy; we
are sinful. Atheists or secular humanists want to leave God entirely out of its
worldview as non-existent; agnostics want only to include the possibility of
His existence but believe that such a supreme being is incapable of being known;
deists will acknowledge Him but make the claim that God is impersonal and not directly
involved with His creation. The various worldviews of idolatry do not consult
the Scriptures; go figure!
As
believers, we think atheists, agnostics, deists, and idol worshippers are full
of hogwash (cf. Jn 14:6; Acts 4:12)! Through faith, we know God exists; He can
be known and is very personal, and He is very much involved in the affairs of
man and the only true God. We know this because the Word declares this to be
true, and we have experienced Him through salvation, fellowship, and His
sovereign watch-care in our lives.
Why
is it important we see the world through God’s Word? Because regardless of our
worldview, we all share a common problem – sinners by nature (Psa 51:5;
Isa 64:6; Rom 3:23; 5:12).
(1Jn
2:16) For
all that is in the world — the lust of the
flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is
of the world.
(1Jn
2:17) And
the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God
abides forever.
The
world is not going to buy into those verses above; the question is, “Are we?” We
need to walk in the Spirit rather than being caught up in the works of the
flesh or our sinful nature. Another reason it is urgent that believers look at
the world through God’s eyes is that our thinking, feeling, and doing have
been corrupted by sin. Once we experience spiritual regeneration; our minds
need to be renovated by the Word God for a radical change (transformed, Rom 12:2) in the
inner man so that we may put to the test what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of
God in our
lives (Rom 12:2c; cf. Col 1:10; 1 Pet 2:2; 2 Pet 3:18). We cannot do this if we
are looking at the world only through our eyes! It must be through God’s eyes!
We
know how to think, feel, and act in a worldly manner. Nobody needs to teach us
that; it comes naturally, and we got that down pat. Therefore, the renewing of
our minds is so important in our lives if we are to glorify God in all that we
think, say, or do. Is it any surprise that the world could care less about the
will of God or how He looks at the world? So, whenever you or I go worldly on
Jesus, we are in effect saying, “I could care less about your will because it
is all about me!” We are in sin because we are in disagreeing with God (cf. 1
Jn 1:9).
We
know what the world looks like; we need to see it from another point of view,
from a Divine angle, the Word of God. We need to see the world through God’s
eyes. The only way for that to happen is to grow in the grace and knowledge of
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Why
did I put on eyeglasses when I was forty? I wanted to see what I was looking
at! It’s not rocket science. Seeing things in a physical blur was not for me.
Did I like wearing glasses? No. Did I need to wear glasses? Yes, and thank God
for contacts!
Why
do you think believers struggle or refuse to learn the Word? You think that
they would want to see the world as God does, yes? Ironically, they came out of
a dark hole of spiritual blindness only to exchange the darkness of unbelief for the darkness of willful spiritual ignorance! The prevalence of willful spiritual
ignorance of the Scriptures among believers today is an indictment of sin in
the camp!
Such
so-called believers do not see the need to see the world through God’s eyes
because the Word of God is not their rule of life. It doesn’t govern what they
think, say, or do. For any of us to be seeing things in a spiritual blur is not
acceptable to Yahweh. God is insistent on spiritual clarity (cf. Jer 9:23-24). It
is self-evident that the Scriptures reveal His point of view.
We
all have need of spiritual glasses from birth to death, like it or not. As your
temporary eye doctor, I leave you this important recommendation for us all. The
longer we keep them on (continually growing in grace), the better our spiritual
vision becomes and the truth about this world. If you want to be blessed, well,
that is just another reason to keep your glasses on!
The
cool thing about wearing Scripture glasses is that there is no loss of peripheral
vision for there are no frames, no aggravating imprints on the nose, no
bifocals, no transition lenses, no adjusting them constantly on your face, no
cleaning the lenses, and no cost to the user; the only cost is not wearing
them! Hiding the Word of God in our hearts that we might not sin against Him is
the best pair of glasses I have ever put on, even surpassing contacts (Psa 119:11)!
(Joh 8:32) And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
There’s another reason to look at the world through the eyes of God! The list can go on and on. <><
