Open the eyes of my heart Lord
I often enjoy cutting myself off a small bit of cheese and eating it when I get a bit hungry at night while waiting for dinner. But on one occasion I went to the fridge where I knew there was a new block of cheese and it wasn’t there! I carefully searched the whole shelf, nothing. So I called out to Di- “We’ve got no cheese- it’s gone!- who ate all the cheese?” So Di comes up to the fridge, and there it is cunningly concealed in a different container AND on a different shelf in the fridge! Of course I get no sympathy, the only comment I get is I’m having a man-look! What does that actually mean anyway? Men in the world suffer from some kind of myopia? The other day I had man-flu? (I’m thinking of asking for the UN to open WOman Man Bashing organisation? But I think that spells WOMB – World WOMB Organisation for men doesn’t sound right, so I’ll have to give it more thought!)
The point is sometimes there are things we just don’t see, and sometimes we jump to conclusions!
The classic example in the Bible of this is the story of Elisha in 2 Kings 6
The background is that the King of Aram is at war with Israel. But he is being frustrated by Israel seemingly to know his every move. The king of Aram calls in his officers and demands they tell him how this happens. Who is giving Israel this inside information he demands?
We pick up the story in 2 Kings 6:12-18
12 “None of us, my lord the king,” said one of his officers, “but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the very words you speak in your bedroom.”
13 “Go, find out where he is,” the king ordered, “so I can send men and capture him.” The report came back: “He is in Dothan.” 14 Then he sent horses and chariots and a strong force there. They went by night and surrounded the city.
15 When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. “Oh no, my lord! What shall we do?” the servant asked.
16 “Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”
17 And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
18 As the enemy came down toward him, Elisha prayed to the Lord, “Strike this army with blindness.” So he struck them with blindness, as Elisha had asked.
Quite an incredible experience for them all, especially the servant of Elisha! The circumstance this servant found himself in must have been quite frightening. Once captured by this army he would be lucky to get out of there alive. How often are we like this servant where we look at our circumstances and think wow could things get worse? It’s interesting that this servant was blind to his circumstances and then his eyes were opened. The soldiers could see then they were blinded. The soldiers came with horses and chariots, and when the servant’s eyes were opened he saw the horses and chariots of fire in support of him. Yet it seems the horses and chariots of fire were not even brought into action- Elisha simply prayed “Lord, strike these people with blindness” and it happened.
In my experience there are three situations where we are often blinded, like this servant was.
Firstly In relation to circumstances that may affect us. This may be financial, health, natural events, pandemics or whatever. And we can respond just as this servant did in vs 15
“Oh no, my lord! What shall we do?” the servant asked.
Before I get into some pointers in dealing with adverse circumstances, lets have a look at another part of scripture where circumstances were also dire
Hagar was the Egyptian maidservant to Abraham, Sarah tells Abraham to send Hagar and her son Ishmael away which he does.
Genesis 21:14-19
14 Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He set them on her shoulders and then sent her off with the boy. She went on her way and wandered in the Desert of Beersheba.
15 When the water in the skin was gone, she put the boy under one of the bushes. 16 Then she went off and sat down about a bowshot away, for she thought, “I cannot watch the boy die.” And as she sat there, she[a] began to sob.
17 God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there. 18 Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.”
19 Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.
In difficult circumstances people might even remind you of what Elisha said
Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”
That all very well in theory- I’m talking about myself here!- but how do I get it this from my head to my heart! Let me tell you right up front-this is a work in progress! So how do we do this?
a. Well firstly I think we have to draw close to God and be filled with the Holy Spirit. If we don’t draw close to God we are going to rely on our own abilities and strengths. And I can tell you from experience that will never work no matter how hard you try. But Ephesians 1:17-20 can be our guide and we read
17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened…
So really, the first thing is to ask God for that Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the circumstances we face. And” keep asking” as Paul did so that the eyes of our heart may be opened.
b. Secondly we need to be a servant- or at least have a servant attitude. Just as Elisha’s servants eyes were opened, just as Abrahams maidservant’s eyes were opened, when we humble ourselves before God we are so much more receptive to our eyes being opened.
c. Then thirdly we need to remember the rest of that verse In Ephesians 1
18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead
I.e. we need to bring to mind and remember the HOPE God has for us not only in the future but right now, to bring to mind and remember the richness of his inheritance that we have, not just in the future but now. The New Life Translation puts it this way “I pray that you will see how great the things are that He has promised to those who belong to Him. “ Then lastly in this verse that we remember the power that God has in solving any and every challenge we may face not only in the future but now. To the point of raising you from the dead!
Practically when we just look at this pandemic as an example and we see and experience so many people serving and helping those less fortunate than ourselves, that gives hope, but more than that we know we have an even greater hope of the age to come. And as we recognize our frailty and mortality, we see the provision of God, and we see the graciousness of God in our lives. And so as we see the hope, the richness and the power of God we begin to see the horses and the chariots of fire around us!
It's is not only in circumstance that we are blinded, but often we are blinded to some people (and sometimes that which is good in other people). The classic example is that of the story of the woman at the well
John 4:7-9
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
This lady had the label” Samaritan” and because of this Jews did not associate with such a person. We too can give people labels and put them into boxes. Sometimes on the hearsay of others and it can be a very serious mistake to make. Let me give you one example where suspiciousness in the bible had some serious consequences
Samuel 10:1-4
10 In the course of time, the king of the Ammonites died, and his son Hanun succeeded him as king. 2 David thought, “I will show kindness to Hanun son of Nahash, just as his father showed kindness to me.” So David sent a delegation to express his sympathy to Hanun concerning his father.
When David’s men came to the land of the Ammonites, 3 the Ammonite commanders said to Hanun their lord, “Do you think David is honouring your father by sending envoys to you to express sympathy? Hasn’t David sent them to you only to explore the city and spy it out and overthrow it?” 4 So Hanun seized David’s envoys, shaved off half of each man’s beard, cut off their garments at the buttocks, and sent them away.
Because of their pre-conceived ideas about David and as a direct result of the Ammonites suspicions, Israel and the Ammonites went to war over this incident. (This in spite of David’s good intentions). In the ensuing battle David killed 40,000 of their troops
We need to be careful we too, don’t pre-judge or have preconceived ideas about others, or have any Ammonite commanders whispering in our ear, about others.
BUT, when we see the hope that God has in these other people, when we see their richness in their inheritance in God, and when we consider the love that God has for them in raising them to eternal life one day, then we too will see the scales fall from our eyes and see them in a different light.
Then thirdly. We’ve looked at being blinded to circumstance and being blinded to others, but I think we are often blinded to ourselves.
Paul writes this in 2 Timothy 3:1-5 3 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, …………., lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.
More and more we see our focus in life centred on pleasures, appearances and wealth. For some there is this obsession with foods that may provide some health benefit, some in bodily image, some obsessed with wealth and so it goes on. One knows this is a problem in life when it becomes all they talk about and it consumes their mind and they have no time for anything else. Therein lies part of the solution.
It helps to remember just how short our time is here compared to the eternity we have in Jesus!
1 Peter 1:23-25
“All people are like grass,
and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
the grass withers and the flowers fall,
25 but the word of the Lord endures forever.”
An eternal perspective will change our lives. It changes our focus away from the immediate circumstances, away from ourselves and brings us a perspective which we never had before.
And so to conclude and using my cheese in the fridge analogy, when we are looking at others or circumstances, we sometimes put them in particular containers on a particular shelf in the fridge. Somewhere easy to reach! Then when we, (let me be more specific us men) come to look for it, we cannot see it. The reason being, it not in the container we expected and it’s not even on the same shelf! Maybe what we should look for is something containerised and packaged by our Father in heaven. And as we look we will see something that has hope, a rich inheritance and we will see the incomparably great power of God for us who believe