Daily Reading: Matthew 6
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! (Matthew 6.22-23)
Devotional Thought: I once heard an evangelist say, that the “images of the past” haunt our thoughts. I know that there are things that I have seen in the past that come back to my mind unbidden to discourage me, to tempt me, to draw my mind away from the light. How tragic it is to choose to fill your eyes with pictures that mar and scar your mental landscape.
On what are your eyes focused? It’s extremely important, for as Jesus says, “The eye is the lamp of the body” (v. 22).
“If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light.” What does that mean to you? I think it means that if we are looking at good things then the light of the Kingdom will illuminate our souls and inform our thinking. When we fix our eyes on Jesus, everything else changes! Insults do not pierce as deeply; tragedies have a glimmer of hope in them; people become nicer; desperate situations burst with hope.
The converse is also true. Jesus said, “If your eyes are bad, then your whole body will be full of darkness.” When we look for the bad, we certainly will find it, and that will impact every other thought.
The Apostle Paul encourages us to “take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10.5). That is especially true in the things we choose to gaze upon, to dwell upon. The chorus that we used to sing many years ago is so true: Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.”
Prayer: Father, help me to gain control of my eyes... To fix my eyes upon Jesus. To see fields white unto harvest. To see how people are like sheep without a shepherd. To take in the Word of God. May my whole being be filled with the light of your Kingdom. Amen.
Psalm of the Day: Psalm 85:8-13
8 Let me hear what God the LORD will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, to his saints; but let them not turn back to folly.
9 Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him, that glory may dwell in our land.
10 Steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other.
11 Faithfulness springs up from the ground, and righteousness looks down from the sky.
12 Yes, the LORD will give what is good, and our land will yield its increase.
13 Righteousness will go before him and make his footsteps a way.
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