Enlightened eyes

that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. – Ephesians 1.17-21

We can read in the psalms that ‘the nations walk in darkness and don’t know what they are stumbling over. As we look around us it is obvious to see that the world is still lost in the darkness of sin. We read that the god of this world has blinded the minds of those who do not believe.

We though need not walk in that kind of darkness. We are not blind. As a part of our salvation we have the knowledge that the eyes of our understanding have been enlightened. We have a light that the world cannot see. That’s why Paul can write that we don’t need to look at the temporal things that we can see. Instead we can look at the eternal invisible things that the world can’t grasp. We have a heavenly vision that should lift us up about the trials of this world. God opens our eyes so that we learn to see things in an eternal perspective.

The problem is that we have to choose to use our enlightened eyes. Lift up our eyes and see that our help comes from the Lord. The Jews had a slightly different perspective as they travelled. We know through the psalms that when they approached Jerusalem they had hope because they knew God lived there.

We know our God is there. He has enlightened our eyes.

Open our eyes Lord, we want to see Jesus.