“Let your
eyes look straight ahead, And your eyelids look right before you. Ponder the
path of your feet, And let all your ways be established. Do not turn to the
right or the left; Remove your foot from evil.” (Proverbs 4:25-27)
Have you ever gone into a season
of life when you choose to indulge in sin? You may go days of giving yourself
over to your own selfishness and the ways of this world which Satan rules.
Pretty soon, you start to realize scripture doesn’t have that much of an impact
on you like it once did. You start to notice your sensitivity level has been
weakened and your heart been hardened. You become angry or depressed and
irritable about situations and towards other people. Then you start to take on
an attitude that reflects an ungrateful heart.
Then, you take a look around you
and say, “Man! How did I get here? How
did it get this bad?” I’m sure you didn’t think to yourself that it would
be ok if you become out of control. No, that is not how it starts. If you truly
want God in your life, you never get to this point with the intention of taking
on the devil’s characteristics. That’s never the case!
All this starts with a very tiny
little compromise to let you eyes wonder off the path of righteousness. It’s
that second look after that accidental first glance at the scantily dressed
teenagers on the magazine rack in the checkout line. The amazing part about
this is if you get your eyes off of Christ and His will, you can be so easily
deceived into thinking your still ok! You’re still doing your daily devotions,
your still praying, and your still serving the Lord in ministry. Be very
careful of this! You can still do all these things and think you’re doing good
and yet, you’re starting to put “DO NOT ENTER” signs on that one room in your
clean house that you don’t want Jesus to go into.
Charles H. Spurgeon said...
“The motive is the eye of the soul, and if
it be clear, the whole character will be right; but if it be polluted, our
whole being will become defiled. The eye of the understanding may also be here
understood: if a man does not see things in a right light, he may live in sin
and yet fancy that he is doing his duty. A man should live up to his light; but
if that light is itself darkness, what a mistake his whole course will be! If
our religion leads us to sin, it is worse than irreligion. If our faith is
presumption, our zeal selfishness, our prayer formality, our hope a delusion,
our experience infatuation, the darkness is so great that even our Lord holds
up his hands in astonishment and says — “How great is that darkness! “ Oh, for
a single eye to God’s glory, a sincere consecration unto the Lord This alone
can fill my soul with light. “
Today we are looking into the
thirteenth topic on the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus is teaching, which is “The lamp of the Body”. Matthew 6:22-23… “The lamp of the body is the eye. If
therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your
eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light
that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
Don’t
get me wrong, I’m not suggesting you can go out and knock over a liquor store
or kill someone because you started looking at a bad magazine the day before.
However, the major issues start somewhere. Things just don’t happen overnight.
That small tiny little compromise will lead to something a little deeper the
next week or so, and if you don’t repent, it will lead to something very
destructive months or even years later.
Doesn’t
this show how critical it is to be careful where we place our feet and what we
are looking at or what thoughts we allow to entertain us? It’s best to not even
entertain that compromise in the first place, or else you will have a big mess to
clean up later.
Reflection:
Why can’t we just heed the
wisdom of Jesus? Why must we think we can get our eyes off of Him and be ok?
Our hearts are desperately wicked! We must simply trust God’s Word! For years,
I’ve spent trying so hard to keep my eyes in front. It’s very difficult to
change an ingrained deep bad habit. Once you allow God to change that, you
don’t want to go back. However, that is where Satan comes in with his subtle
ways because he knows your heart is still wicked and he will go to great
lengths to trip you up! Watch out!!! (1 Peter 5:6-9)
Challenge:
If you are reading this before
your day starts, plead with God that He helps you to keep your eyes, feet and
mind pointed to Him. If you are reading this after your day is done, chances are
you have already been tested. Ask God to forgive you and repent of those subtle
sins that you may have given into today. Go and find a need that needs to be
met and mercy someone today or pray for someone tonight to get your thoughts on
someone else rather than yourself.
-Doug McGowan
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