By Pastor Doug Cox

There are close to 45 references to eyes in the New Testament gospels. In one instance two blind men come to Jesus asking Him, “Lord, that our eyes may be opened.” (Matthew 20:33). Both men received their miracle and happily followed Jesus from there.

 
In Matthew Jesus spoke a parable and at the end of it said, “But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear.” In the next verse He stressed what a powerful blessing it was for them to see what they were seeing. He said “for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.” (Matthew 13:16-17)
 
On another sad occasion Jesus spoke over Jerusalem. It was just before His crucifixion. He said, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.” (Luke 19:42)
 
We are all born spiritually blind, but what a sad thing to stay that way. In Ephesians 1:17-18 the Apostle Paul writes to believers saying, may  “…the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints…”
 
The NIV says “I pray the eyes of your heart be enlightened”. We humans are born with physical eyes and spiritual eyes. Our spiritual eyes are opened when we are born again through Christ. (See John 3:3 and 2 Corinthians 5:17) From Paul’s words in Ephesians we learn that after the new birth the process of seeing must be developed in the believer just like a newborn baby’s eyes in the natural. The newborn’s healthy eyes contain everything needed to see, it’s just that the brain and the eyeball need to learn to function together. In the same way our spiritual eyes must be enlightened.
 
I believe it is vitally important for every believer as we move closer and closer to the coming of the Lord to pray that the Lord will continue to enlighten our spiritual eyes to see from His Word what we need to see. And that we will see in the world what we need to see. The good news is we don’t have to be like those of whom the Lord wept over during His earthly ministry because they were blinded by the world and their own desires.
 
So, pray for the eyes of your heart to be enlightened and while you are praying remember those around you who are blind. 2 Corinthians 4:3-4 gives the reason. “…if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.” Remember your prayers can help open their blind eyes.