Clouded from View

  Clouded from View

    “I pray that the eyes of your heart being opened, you
       would know the hope to which He has called you.”
Ephesians 1:18

Looking out from the veranda of the Bible school one morning this week, the city of Manila, an expansive metropolis of 15 million people, was entirely clouded from view, enveloped in a thick cloud of black smog that covered the city like a blanket. The many skyscrapers which on a clear day dot the skyline were invisible on this morning, the victims of many years of aging vehicles pouring out diesel fumes in a third world country fighting to modernize. The scene had taken over my morning devotion and caused me to ask the question: What is clouded from my view Lord, about you, about myself and about the way I look at others?

The tendency to see ourselves in a better light than we look at others with is well documented. Other people’s faults, weaknesses, and problems take on a life of their own in our minds and cause us to shrink back from them, while our own similar issues are understandable, excusable and tolerable. I think it was Jesus who said that with the same judgment we judge others with, we will be judged ourselves. It is time for each of us to take off the rose colored glasses that we use when we look in the mirror, and begin to see ourselves more honestly and clearly. In so doing, the goal of becoming more and more like the Lord will become a greater possibility than might ever have been realized.

The second benefit to doing that, seeing ourselves as we really are, is that we will look at others with new mercies and understanding. We won’t be any different and they won’t be any different but we will have a new willingness to accept others and pray for them because we see in them the same weaknesses and struggles, in different forms, that we ourselves face. If God has already given us a breakthrough in an area, it should cause us to be compassionate, trusting Him through prayer for the same victory in our brother or sister’s life.

When it comes to God, He is not to be the product of our imagination but the God revealed to us in the pages of the Bible. Our God is a God who loves to show mercy, to forgive, and to pour out His grace. But He is also a God who is looking for a people who will serve Him on His terms not their own, a people who will love Him with all their heart, soul, mind and strength. And I wonder if we sometimes convince ourselves that we are giving God our best when the reality of our Christian walk is clouded from our view. I pray, therefore, that the Lord will cause each of us to serve Him with a vision that is clear, a heart that is open and a life that is being changed.

From the Philippines,
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church