Eyesight

I wear contacts and or glasses.  I wouldn’t say my eyesight it horrible, but I do rely on the help I receive from my glasses or contacts to help perfect my vision. 

It wouldn’t really be wise of me to drive without my glasses, it actually would be very dangerous to not only me but to the other people on the road.  

Every year I go to my eye doctor to have my vision checked, and to make sure my eyes are healthy and still working properly.  I go to make sure that everything is in order and to get new contacts and glasses.  This has become a habit for me, something that I need to function safely and properly in my everyday life.

We need to do the same thing for our spiritual vision as well.  

In Matthew 20:30-34 we read about two blind men who are asking for help from Jesus, to be healed. 

(30) And behold, two blind men were sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, Lord, have pity and mercy on us, (You) Son of David!  (31) The crowds reproved them and told them to keep still; but they cried our all the more, Lord, have pity and mercy on us, (You) Son of David! (32) And Jesus stopped and called them, and asked, What do you want Me to do for you? (33) They answered Him, Lord, we want our eyes to be opened! (34) And Jesus, in pity, touched their eyes; and instantly they received their sight and followed Him.

Amazing isn’t it?  Jesus took His time to heal two more people who were waiting for Him and His healing power.  They were in His path and on His travels, but they didn’t place themselves there, they were divinely placed in the path of Jesus, to receive their healing.

Now, I don’t want to take anything, not one ounce of glory, from these verses or the abilities that Jesus has, but I read this story differently, or should I say God revealed this story to me in a different way.

To me, yes, the men were blind, in need of a savior, and of healing, and Jesus is definitely where we find all of those things, and oh so much more.   But what if we are reading this in a literal sense and not in a spiritual sense.

I believe that there is a second meaning, a second instruction, a deeper truth to these verses.  I believe that we are to start looking at life not through the eyes that we have naturally, in our earthly bodies, but we are to be looking at life through our spiritual eyes. 

Did you ever stop to think that there are many stories in the Bible of Jesus healing blind people, why do the healing of blind men out weight the stories of healing in general? 

I think it’s because we are spiritually blind.  I think it’s because yes, we have sight with our eyes, and thank God for it, but we are limited in our view, because that’s the only sight we are using.  We are using or limiting ourselves to the natural eyesight, when we should be using both.

When you receive Jesus, you receive all that He is, so we receive His spiritual eyesight as well.  We receive the ability to see things as He sees them, not as our natural sight limits us to see.

Here is an example from my own life.  I had decided that it was time for me to date again, after my last relationship had ended.  I had taken the time I needed to heal, learn and change, as to not make the same mistakes again.  I had prayed and received prayer for my decision and not long after met someone who, naturally, was not someone that I would have been interested in. 

We had many things that were not I common, but one thing that was, and that was God.  We had that connection from the beginning.  I believe that God allowed me to see this man with His eyesight, and not my own.  If I would have viewed him from my eyesight, I would not have continued along my journey, but God stopped me and allowed me to see the man He is making him into, instead of the broken man he already is.

This actually has happened many times in my life.  God has placed people in front of me that the world rejects, or they have a horrible reputation, and I am almost always warned about these people and how they will hurt me, but yet, God reveals a different person to me. 

God will take those people and allow me to see them with the eyes that He sees them with.  He takes the things that are wonderful about each one of them individually, and allows those things to be the things that are magnified to me, the things that I see and appreciate in them, and the bad things, that yes, they are there, He dims them so that I am not able to see them.

I believe God does this because He wants to work through me to help heal these people, or to show them love and respect that other people have not given them.  I love that God has given me this eyesight, this ability to see Him in people, but at times it has caused me a lot of heartache and pain.

To me this is what the verses in Matthew 20 are telling us.  Yes, we have vision and are not blind physically, but we are blind spiritually.  We are blind because we haven’t received the healing, the touch, the acceptance or ability, to see people as Jesus sees people. 

To see who Jesus is making them into, instead of who the enemy has tried to convince them they are. 

To me the enemy is represented in verse 31, where we see that the crowd tried to keep them silent and still.  The crowd tried to stop them from chasing after Jesus, to receive their healing.  The enemy will do the same thing to each of us.  The enemy will put drugs, sex, alcohol, money, power, fear or a number of other things, in your path to keep your eyesight on only the things that are seen. 

The enemy will limit your view of your surroundings, or who you have/are becoming to keep you in the box of self-hate, condemnation and pain.  To keep you from seeking Jesus and surrendering your life, and vision over to Him.   But just as we see in verse 31 where the blind men cried out all the more, we too should cry out all the more. 

We too should continue to cry out for the savior, the healing, that touch from Jesus that we all need, and as we have seen many times in the Bible, Jesus will be there, to deliver, just that.

Verse 32 And Jesus stopped and called them, and asked, What do you want Me to do for you? 

Jesus is already doing this with you. 

Jesus is already stopping and heeding your prayer and your call and asking what can I do for you?  

You see many times, we say Jesus is lost, or God is hiding His face from us, when in fact it’s the crowds around us that are keeping us distant.  It’s the enemy keeping us in a box that shields our views, it’s our sin that has not allowed us to think we deserve Jesus, but we do, you do.

Jesus answered their cries, Jesus answered them in their time of need, and He will do the same for you.  We see in verse 34 And Jesus, in pity, touched their eyes; and instantly they received their sight and followed Him.

Instantly they received their sight, instantly! 

The ability, the healing, the salvation or the sight, is all there, we just need to receive it.  Jesus has never let us down, Jesus has never chosen to not heal you in your time of need, No, Jesus has always been there but maybe our limited eyesight hasn’t allowed us to see Him.

I believe these verses, while yes, they are about healing physically,  I think they speak of healing that is needed spiritually.   When you make the decision to open your heart to Jesus, to accept Him as the Lord and Savior of your life, your spirit is instantly cleansed and made right.  You are immediately washed with the blood of Jesus.  The Blood of Jesus, takes every poor decision you've made, every mistake, every sin, even the ones you don't allow yourself to remember, and removes them.  The Blood washes our stained souls clean, and then He remembers them no more. 

This is for everyone… There are no qualifications for the person, the only things you have to do are believe and receive. 

Believe that Jesus died on the cross for you, for your sins, and that He rose three days later and is seated in heaven at the right hand of God.  You just have to believe those things and then receive the amazing gift that Jesus gave to you, when He shed His blood on the cross for you. 

With each drop of blood that was shed for you,  your sins were forgiven and washed away.  With each tear He shed, was an eye opened, and was a heart softened for Him; was an addiction healed.   We just need to receive the precious gift that He gave.

Just as the two men were calling on Jesus to heal them from their blindness, Jesus is calling on us, to give us that healing.  God wants us to have the perfect sight that He has.  He wants us to be able to see the life around us the way that He sees it, and the only way for that to happen, is for our spirits to be healed and made clean, and that’s through the Blood of Jesus Christ.

Make the decision today to receive Him and His ability to heal you, not only physically but emotionally and spiritually.  Allow God to open your eyes spiritually to the beauty of all people and begin, as I have, to see them as God sees them, not as the world sees them!