Lamp of the Body
I want to see my life in a way that agrees with God. He made me. He knows what He has placed in my heart...the desire, the skill, the strength, and the weakness. God knows how to extract from my circumstances what will satisfy the desires of my heart.
Jesus said my "eye" is the lamp of my body. What I keep my "eye on" determines the amount of light I am filled with. Keeping my eye trained on what God says is good fills my whole body with light. Training my eye on what the world says is good diminishes the light...to the point I no longer see things in God's light, but in the world's light. This is like the difference between seeing things in the light of day, and then seeing things illuminated by a blacklight at a party...these different lights highlight different things. The true light reveals things the way they really look. The blacklight distorts how I see.
Matthew 6:22 “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
People go where they are looking. If you are looking off to the side of the road while you drive, you will eventually swerve to the side of the road. Look off the trail while you are on a bike, I guarantee you will eventually end up in the woods. Take your eye off the ball while taking a golf shot, you won't hit it squarely.
This is even more true in my heart. In a country so full of options, it is easy to keep my eye on lots of different lights. The light of my image, the light of my comfort, the light of my success, the light of my dinner, or my entertainment. The light of my balanced life. Americans, even the poorest, have a full menu of possible dreams and visions to choose from. We have lots to aim for...lots to keep our eye on.
For most of my life, I mistook a sincere love of God for wholeheartedness...or having one vision. Wholeheartedness, or pursuing God with drive and "heat" in my spirit, is having one focused vision on Him and letting the rest of life flow out of that...letting the rest take care of itself.
Wholeheartedness is what Jesus called dying to yourself and living fully in Jesus:
Mark 8:34 When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 35 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.
Having one vision focused on God...having a good eye...fills me with agreement with Jesus. It saves my life. It brings heaven to my experience of earth. It satisfies my purpose and the desires placed in me by God. If I have one eye on God and one on my career, or one on my comfort, or one on my security, I will only let about half the light into my heart that was possible, I will only go about half-way as near to God as I could have, and I will only be partially satisfied...I might have warm thoughts toward God, and even give Him a significant portion of my money, time, and loyalty, but it will be less than what I could have had in Him. Jesus called this lukewarm:
Revelation 3:15 “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. 16 So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. 17 Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked— 18 I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. 19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.
Jesus says if my light, my vision for life, doesn't agree with His vision for my life, it will be like trying to live in a backlit world. I might think I am rich, but in the light of day, I am poor. I might think I am successful or important, but in the light of day I will realize I am miserable and embarrassingly naked.
On one day in the future, I am going to step into the light of day. On that day, the light I was living in will be revealed. On that day, only one opinion will matter.
Right now, in His mercy, Jesus has revealed that my eye is the window. I can let the light of day in, or I can focus on a strange light. Because of free will, I can train my eye on any light I choose, but that light is going to really impact the reality I live in.
I want a vision of what God has for my life that ruins me for this world. A blacklight is worthless unless the other light is off. The light of day ruins the effect of the blacklight. Dancing in a black lit room is only fun when there is no other light.
I want to see myself in a million years, I want to define success in eons, not decades. I want salve for my eyes, that have been burned by the world's strange light....I want to dance in the light of day.
Proverbs 29:18 Where there is no revelation (vision), the people cast off restraint; But happy is he who keeps the law.
Jesus said my "eye" is the lamp of my body. What I keep my "eye on" determines the amount of light I am filled with. Keeping my eye trained on what God says is good fills my whole body with light. Training my eye on what the world says is good diminishes the light...to the point I no longer see things in God's light, but in the world's light. This is like the difference between seeing things in the light of day, and then seeing things illuminated by a blacklight at a party...these different lights highlight different things. The true light reveals things the way they really look. The blacklight distorts how I see.
Matthew 6:22 “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
People go where they are looking. If you are looking off to the side of the road while you drive, you will eventually swerve to the side of the road. Look off the trail while you are on a bike, I guarantee you will eventually end up in the woods. Take your eye off the ball while taking a golf shot, you won't hit it squarely.
This is even more true in my heart. In a country so full of options, it is easy to keep my eye on lots of different lights. The light of my image, the light of my comfort, the light of my success, the light of my dinner, or my entertainment. The light of my balanced life. Americans, even the poorest, have a full menu of possible dreams and visions to choose from. We have lots to aim for...lots to keep our eye on.
For most of my life, I mistook a sincere love of God for wholeheartedness...or having one vision. Wholeheartedness, or pursuing God with drive and "heat" in my spirit, is having one focused vision on Him and letting the rest of life flow out of that...letting the rest take care of itself.
Wholeheartedness is what Jesus called dying to yourself and living fully in Jesus:
Mark 8:34 When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 35 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.
Having one vision focused on God...having a good eye...fills me with agreement with Jesus. It saves my life. It brings heaven to my experience of earth. It satisfies my purpose and the desires placed in me by God. If I have one eye on God and one on my career, or one on my comfort, or one on my security, I will only let about half the light into my heart that was possible, I will only go about half-way as near to God as I could have, and I will only be partially satisfied...I might have warm thoughts toward God, and even give Him a significant portion of my money, time, and loyalty, but it will be less than what I could have had in Him. Jesus called this lukewarm:
Revelation 3:15 “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. 16 So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. 17 Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked— 18 I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. 19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.
Jesus says if my light, my vision for life, doesn't agree with His vision for my life, it will be like trying to live in a backlit world. I might think I am rich, but in the light of day, I am poor. I might think I am successful or important, but in the light of day I will realize I am miserable and embarrassingly naked.
On one day in the future, I am going to step into the light of day. On that day, the light I was living in will be revealed. On that day, only one opinion will matter.
Right now, in His mercy, Jesus has revealed that my eye is the window. I can let the light of day in, or I can focus on a strange light. Because of free will, I can train my eye on any light I choose, but that light is going to really impact the reality I live in.
I want a vision of what God has for my life that ruins me for this world. A blacklight is worthless unless the other light is off. The light of day ruins the effect of the blacklight. Dancing in a black lit room is only fun when there is no other light.
I want to see myself in a million years, I want to define success in eons, not decades. I want salve for my eyes, that have been burned by the world's strange light....I want to dance in the light of day.
Proverbs 29:18 Where there is no revelation (vision), the people cast off restraint; But happy is he who keeps the law.
Comments
Post a Comment
I appreciate your comments.