Open the Eyes of My Heart

eDevotion

Encouragement for your daily walk with God 

I sat at my computer this morning with headphones on, listening to some music, preparing my heart to finish editing this week’s sermon. Then it happened! “Open the eyes of my heart, Lord. Open the eyes of my heart, I want to see you!” The words were like an sharp instrument piercing my soul. 

It reminded me of a story recorded in 2 Kings 6. Perhaps you’re familiar with it. Elisha’s servant looked at the circumstance he was in, and all he saw was the army of Aram surrounding the town. That’s it. In a sense, he was spiritually blind.

Before we get on his case though, aren’t we like that at times? We see our disappointments, our discouragements, our enemies, and like Gehazi, fear starts to settle in. When that happens, we start to look down on the stranger, complain about the lazy, point fingers and blast those who disagree. We see the world as lost to the devil and that we are the ones who suffer. We take the bait of setting God aside to earn our fortune and have fun. 

The prayer that Elisha prayed is a great way to address our spiritual blindness. “Lord, open my eyes that I might see.” With spiritual eyes wide open, we see sin as sin, and the lust of anything as rebellion against God. But we also see our victory. Christ rules. The world is in His hands. Like the Psalmist, we proclaim, “I too give witness to the greatness of God, our Lord, high above all other gods. He does just as he pleases—however, wherever, whenever” [Psalm 135:6 The MESSAGE Paraphrase]. 

That’s what happened to Gehazi. With his spiritual eyes opened, he looked at his circumstance again, but this time, he saw “the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.” Guarded by the heavenly army, his fear began to melt away. 

The Apostle Paul lived with his spiritual eyes open too. He wasn’t blind to his circumstances, yet he could say with all confidence, if God is on our side, “who can stand against us?” [Romans 8:31].

That was the beginning of a prayer for me. “Lord, open my eyes to see You are on my side. Help me to be fearless in this hostile, sin-sick world. I can do anything You ask of me because I am protected by Your mighty hand.” Amen.

And Elisha prayed, and said, “Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. 2 Kings 6:17