ENLIGHTENED EYES
23rd May 2018
In Victorian times it was popular to have framed embroidered texts on the wall. One image remains in my memory, “Thou God seest Me” I’m sure it was not designed to frighten me, but it did. At that time my image of God was of a strict headmaster in the sky who wouldn’t like what He saw!
As I have matured in my knowledge and understanding of the Godhead, I now see that I am deeply loved for who I am, and not how I perform. Loved so much that God was prepared to sacrifice His beloved Son so I can be seen “In Christ” - redeemed, accepted, being changed from the inside out on a continual basis.
Paul prays in Ephesian 1:17 “that we may know him better, that the eyes of our heart will be enlightened and that we would know the hope to which he has called us.”
King David understood that God was for him, and in 1 Chronicles 17:17 makes an amazing statement. “You have looked on me as though I were the most exalted of men.” He reminisces on how God has honoured him, provided for him and spoken about his future. David’s performance was less than perfect, but he knew God’s love, forgiveness, mercy and restoration. He knew God had chosen him and loved him for who he was not what he did!
Ask God to show you how he sees you? His answer might amaze you. Here are some expressions from Scripture - beloved, the apple of his eye, precious, chosen, not defined by the past, but called and set apart by God for His purposes, and greatly loved.
If you see yourself as a miserable sinner, constantly failing and falling short, always under pressure to perform; you are listening to the “father of lies” and negating the message of the Cross. Those who once were lost have been found, those feeling condemned have been redeemed from the curse of the law and brought near to God.
“As a man thinks in his heart, so he is.” Don’t be deceived into self-condemnation and hide away - God wants you to experience His smile and to know how much He values you.
by Joyce Sibthorpe
