She still takes the newspaper but must use a magnifying
glass to read the words.
Night blindness for her is real. And day blindness has become her new normal.
She tells me it’s not pleasant to look upon a grey, blurry
world out of bleary eyes.
And I empathize with her.
Yet as I consider the notion of blindness, I realize that for
us as believers, spiritual blindness can overtake us in a subtle way. It can cause us to see the world about us
indistinctly. It can make falling far
easier and an understanding of God’s truth less likely.
For many with developing eye problems, cataract surgery brings hope of restored vision. For the Christian,
correct biblical thinking clarifies truth, bringing the world back into
sharp perspective and correcting the blurriness of life.
Second Peter 1:9 tells us that we are blind if we fail to add
to our faith any number of things. ("But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.") What are those things? Faith. Virtue. Knowledge. Temperance. Patience. Godliness. Brotherly kindness. Charity. As I
look at that list, I am reminded that each of these can be categorized as traits of the spirit.
My spirit was purchased at salvation and belongs to God. And yet, indwelling sin is my life-long partner. While the Holy Spirit produces His fruits within our hearts, indwelling sin within us is the greatest
evil we must deal with. (See Matthew 15:18-20.)
While the evils of the world, multiplied together, make up
for a weight of sin that crushes the heart of Jesus, my own sin grieves God’s
Holy Spirit (Eph. 4:30) and breaks my fellowship with God (I John 1:6).
It is that sin for which Christ died—a cost I would have to
pay had I not been redeemed. It is that
sin from which I have been set free! And while that sin at one time barred my
entrance to Heaven, it is Christ’s grace that can keep me from falling every
day.
When any of us for one moment lose perspective on sin, we
fail to figure in the great cost of our own sin being the most impossible debt
we would have had to pay, had we not embraced the free Gift of Christ. We fail to wonder at the amazing sacrifice Christ paid in blood, on our behalf.
We fail to recognize that the evil within trumps the evil of any
circumstance anywhere outside us. We forget we were purged from sins and that each sin stands contrary to the 2 Peter 1 qualities, the 1 Corinthians 13 qualities. The Matthew 5 qualities. Unbelief. Embracing what's not the best. Lack of spiritual understanding. Indulgence. Frustration in trials. Ungodliness. Unkindness. Lack of biblical love.
And so we embrace blindness.
Having failed to diligently add those 2 Peter qualities, we embrace a counterfeit of our soul's enemy. One lie argues, “If only my circumstances were different, I would be
different.” We think that it is really
some difficult person or situation with which we are dealing that would need to
change in order for us to change.
The evils about us can grieve us on the inside, pushing
us to the throne of Grace to intercede on the behalf of others. Wrong choices of others can burrow down deep
as we ponder a life thrown away, living in selfish indulgence of sin. We can wonder at others’ choices to walk a
pathway that is far from God’s. In
fact, we can become so lost in the labyrinth of others’ needs that we fail to
reckon that—no matter how hard we try to help others, if we for one moment fail
to embrace the utter evil within and our own need to continually access God’s
grace at all times with every person and in every situation—we have lost
perspective. The perspective of the
overwhelming gift of grace and our utter need for it. Clarity.
For you, for me—God’s grace is sufficient. In every
situation. At all times.
And as we embrace His grace, never losing sight of our utter need, we can be kept from spiritual blindness.
And from falling.
And as we embrace His grace, never losing sight of our utter need, we can be kept from spiritual blindness.
And from falling.
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