MYOPE
Gordon Crook, PastorGrace Assembly, Wichita, Kansas
MY’OPE, n. A near-sighted person.
This is a physical condition that occurs when the eye can no longer focus well on things at a long distance. It requires glasses or contacts or surgery to fix. If left unfixed, it can lead to unexpected collisions and other clumsiness, as well as many missed opportunities. Some people will take a long time to do something about it, because they don’t want to wear glasses. People might laugh at them.
Unfortunately, many of God’s dear children have this condition spiritually. They can not see well. They are unable to focus on the person of Jesus, and this leads to spiritual collisions and other clumsiness. Fortunately, this is an easy condition to remedy, but we sometimes would rather run around not seeing well. Maybe we are afraid people will laugh at us. Maybe we are a little prideful. Maybe we are just happy with what little we can see.
God wants us to have our eyes focused on Jesus. “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:1-2. If we get focused on the burdens of life, we might get depressed. If we get focused on what the world has to offer, we might get distracted. If we get focused on other people, we might get discouraged, or even prideful. If our eyes are on Jesus, then we will not lose sight of the prize, for He IS the prize.
In John 1:29, when John sees Jesus coming, he immediately focuses everyone’s attention on Him. “Behold the Lamb of God.” This Lamb was so important, that John says about Him, “I am not worthy to untie His sandals.” Also, “I must decrease, but He must increase.” John had a great ministry at that point, but he wanted everyone to have their eyes focused on Jesus, and not himself or his ministry.
Just as we might focus our attention, or even our gaze upon someone that we care about deeply, so we ought to focus on Jesus. He is the one that we love. As we get our focus on Him, He will change our lives, and make us more like Him. Our outlook on life will be different. We will begin to see from His viewpoint, and not the viewpoint of this world.
Paul constantly encourages us to look to Jesus. We are to be looking for His coming. Phillipians 3:20, Titus 2:13, Hebrews 9:28. Those that truly love Jesus will be looking for Him to come at any time. This means that we will not be so occupied with this world that we are not ready for Him to come right now.
In keeping focused on Jesus, we also are to keep focused on eternity. The things of this world will seem dim in the view of eternity. We can endure the trials here, because we look for a day when all this will be done away, and we will no longer suffer, but rejoice in His presence.
If you need some spiritual sight correction, just ask the Lord. He will use the Holy Spirit to do spiritual eye surgery so that you can get focused on Jesus, and the eternal hope that we have with Him. This spiritual surgery will require some reading. We cannot be focused on Jesus if we are not reading His Word. We need time for prayer, so we can spend time in His presence. It is necessary to have some time alone with Jesus if we are to be focused on Him.
As we get older in the natural, we find we need more light to see well. The same is true in the spiritual. We need more light to see better. You will find God’s Word will give you light. The more light you get, the better you see. Don’t allow Satan to remove or even reduce your spiritual light as he is always trying to do.
Having good spiritual vision allows us to see far away, into the future where we find that Jesus has a place prepared for us, and a reward for those that have kept their focus on Him. He is always encouraging us to look beyond this world to our eternal future with Him.
So, don’t be a myope. Get some vision correction and get focused on Jesus. Nothing else matters. You’ll never be sorry, and it’s guaranteed, forever. Read Ephesians 1:18. This is my prayer for you.
