Day 19: Jesus, You Open My Eyes

The question before us today is: Will I be amazingly susceptible to Jesus today? Jesus told His disciples, “But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear” (Matthew 13:16). Today I spent quiet time with the Lord in Week 7 of Passionate Prayer and read this about the wilderness times: “You will discover some of the most beautiful flowers blooming in the wilderness. When you least expect it, you will receive a new experience of God’s love, and you will be moved to praise. Your ability to see is refined in the wilderness, for your earthly distractions have most likely been diminished or altogether taken away. Your focus will move from earth to heaven. In the dry and weary land, David experience God’s lovingkindness (Psalm 63:3)…Nothing satisfies the heart like God’s love. And nothing can take away God’s love from you (Romans 8:38-39). If you have been led to a wilderness, prepare for a new view of God’s love.” (page 167 of Passionate Prayer – A Quiet Time Experience).

I realized today in a new way that spiritual vision and understanding are a gift. Paul tells us in Ephesians 4:19 that the love of Christ “surpasses knowledge.” In other words, His love is SO GREAT that we humans can’t even begin to know it. And yet, we CAN know it – Paul prays for the church at Ephesus to “know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.” And how do we know it? We discover in Romans 5:5 that God’s love is poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

In my quiet time, the Lord Jesus opens my eyes in new ways to see His love and experience it firsthand in my own life. In my quiet time, He opens my eyes to His power and glory. David said, “So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory” (Psalm 63:2). Yesterday I was driving to work and I was thinking about all I had “seen” in my quiet time that morning. And one verse in particular just stood out in my mind – Psalm 78:22. In that psalm there is a description of the people of Israel in the wilderness. The words sum up the great error of those people: “…they did not believe God or trust Him to care for them.” I wrote a little prayer next to that verse and also wrote the date: “Lord, this is where I need to grow stronger.” Those words convicted my heart because sometimes in the heat and hunger of wilderness times, I can think, “What am I going to do? How am I going to survive?” Instead I need to be saying, “Lord, I believe You have a plan and I know You will take care of me, somehow and in some way.”

But here’s the point, the Lord gave me new sight in my quiet time. And often, the real sight comes in that lingering verse throughout the day that I just can’t get out of my heart and mind. I believe we need to listen for it through the day. Jesus is faithful to open my eyes and help me see. He is trustworthy and will give me spiritual hearing as well. In my OC Daily Devotional Bible today, I read that “Joseph was amazingly susceptible to God” and he experienced the “touch of God.” I believe in this generation we need a whole fleet of believers who will be amazingly susceptible to God. And how will this extraordinary openness to God come about? Possibly through a wilderness time. So if we find ourselves in the wilderness, then keep looking up, for the Lord is going to give us a new view of something related to Himself and His ways.

My Response: Lord Jesus, open my eyes that I might behold great and wonderful things in Your Word. In Jesus’ name, Amen.