Welcome to today’s Daily Scripture Reading and Meditation covering Matthew 6:22-23 wherein we see the massive importance of healthy eyes.
The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
Seeing clearly is so very important to healthy living. I’ve hit that point again where it’s time to order more contact lenses. That means that the pair I have in right now will probably get, well, plenty of use until I bite the bullet and go in for more. But needing to purchase new ones so that I can function well is, apart from a miracle, inevitable. Or consider another example. Within the past year, I have had windshield wiper malfunction in both of our vehicles. Have you ever tried driving for long, especially in an Illinois winter, without wipers? I don’t advise it. A simple steady rain can prove brutal, snow can be even worse, and either of these while in traffic where dirty sludge from the roads is being sprayed around is suicide. A clear windshield is essential for good driving.
Jesus taught the importance of healthy vision. He emphasized our need to see things in the right way, according to truth, according to faith in a God who sees and judges every facet of our lives. The cleanness or healthiness of our eyes (like lamps) will have a profound effect on what else can take place on the inside of us. “Are you seeing things correctly?” Jesus is here asking. This is an important question and one that should only be answered after we’ve heard what else He has to say. We might call this chapter the “in secret” chapter of Matthew, for on multiple occasions Jesus speaks of the things that we’re to do in secret, only to be seen by our Father who will one day reward us. Giving, praying, and fasting are all to be performed in such a way. This teaching is a bit counter-intuitive if we’re wanting to “go big” on such activities of piety, but it is such practices carried out quietly that He says is part of our clear vision, indicating healthy “lamps.”
Back to the driving analogy for a moment. Consider the elements that make for a useful windshield. It needs to be wiped clean with wiper blades that push away the distorting substances in front of it. Continual repentance in our lives does the same thing as God reveals through his washing Word the stuff that must be pushed aside so that we are again heading in the right direction. And then there’s that important washer fluid that anoints the glass, melting away the gunk, working together with the wipers to insure effective vision. The powerful presence of the Holy Spirit that God has poured out on us does the same and in increasing measure as we seek to keep in step with His voice. In a car, without both the wipers and the fluid at work, things start to feel pretty crazy at the wheel as you strain to see, visibility getting worse and worse as you try to reach the speed limit without a sudden, abrupt, and damaging stop. Continuing in this mode is like asking for an eventual death sentence. This is life without healthy, God-informed eyes. We may deceive ourselves into thinking that we’re nice and cozy in our dry vehicle, but it’s dark in there and we’re only guessing as to what the gray forms passing by us really are.
My friend, are your eyes healthy? Are you seeing things according to God’s reality? Perhaps you need to fully submit to Jesus for the first time. Or perhaps you’re in need of some new blades because visibility on certain areas of your windshield are cloudy. Go to the Lord for that much needed check-up today.
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