Daily Devotional

I once heard a story about a man who went to see an eye doctor.  The receptionist asked him what kind of problem he was having.

“I keep seeing spots in front of my eyes,” came the answer.

“Have you ever seen a doctor?” she asked.

“No, just spots,” he replied.

The truth is we all have “blind spots” and we all need to have our eyes checked on occasion.
Jesus said: “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Mt 6:22-23)

In these amazing verses, Jesus wasn’t merely talking about our physical eyes.  He was also referring to what Paul called the eyes of our heart, the gateway between the outer world and our inner being (Eph 1:18).  To a large degree, our health as believers depends on the condition of our spiritual eyes.

So I encourage you to take the following spiritual eye exam.  It consists of five questions to help you assess your spiritual health:

1. Are you focusing on things that are pure or impure?There’s a wonderful promise in the Beatitudes that states: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Mt 5:8).  So purity is absolutely essential to see and savor and enjoy our relationship with God.  On the other hand, the lust of the eyes (1Jn 2:16), hatred (1Jn 2:11), and hypocrisy (Mt 7:3-5) will obscure our spiritual sight.  If we’re going to see clearly, we need to walk in the light of Christ’s holiness rather than the darkness of sin (1Jn 1:5-7, 2:11; Mt 5:29).

2. Are you focusing on things that are visible or invisible?The more we focus on the physical world with all of its toys, tasks, temptations and tragedies, the more distracted we will be with the temporary things of life.  But the Bible calls us to walk by faith, not by sight (2Cor 5:7), and to focus on the things that are eternal (Act 4:18).

3. Are you focusing on the word of God? Psalm 119:105 says God’s word is a lamp for our feet and a light for our path.  It illuminates our steps and guides our decisions.  When we open it up and let the light out, Psalm 19:8 says it brings joy to our heart and illumination to our eyes.

4. Are you focusing on the glory of the gospel?This is one of the great privileges a child of God receives at the moment of conversion.  The minds of unbelievers have been blinded by the “god of this age,” so they can’t see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ (2Cor 4:4; Mt 13:14-16).  But when we are born again, we are able to see the kingdom of God (Jn 3:3).  For the first time the gospel makes sense to us (1Cor 2:9-16; 2Cor 3:14-16), and we should remind ourselves of if daily.

5. Are you fixing your eyes on Jesus?When I was 16 years old, learning how to drive, my mom gave me a good piece of advice.  She told me: “Don’t look at oncoming cars on the opposite side of the road.  You always gravitate toward whatever you’re looking at.  Instead, focus on the line in front of you, and you’ll never veer off course.”

I’ll never forget that advice: You always gravitate toward whatever you’re looking at.  That’s exactly what Hebrews 12:2 says we should do. We should “fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith,” because he’s our role model, our inspiration, our perfect example, and our never-ending delight.  If we want to be spiritually healthy, we need to keep our eyes fixed on him and we’ll never veer off course.

So how did you do on the eye exam?