Matthew 6:22-23 MSG
“Your eyes are windows into your body. If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a musty cellar. If you pull the blinds on your windows, what a dark life you will have!”
So then the thought that bears asking is ‘HOW’ (not WHAT) do we see? This referencing the origin & influence of our perceptions. Depending on our ‘point of reference’ (aka the lens through which we filter information), our perceptions are formed.
Hence, what are we basing our perceptions on? Our own experiences perhaps? The experiences/opinions of others? Do we even know or recognize what we are basing them on? Have we given it any ‘prayerful’ consideration?
One reason Daily renewing of our minds through meditation of God’s Living Word and prayer (aka spending personal time with God in His Presence) is so critical, is to have our filters (the influences of our thought life) brought subject, properly aligned, and cleansed. In so doing we are transformed all the more to SEE AS HE SEES; from a more balanced, wholistic perspective.
“Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.”
Titus 1:15
As our minds are cleansed through daily personal interaction with God and His (Living) Word, our perceptions and perspectives SHIFT to a ‘higher plane’, and our focus is shifted from ‘what’ to ‘how’ we perceive.
Case in point, one individual may encounter someone with an addiction and see the individual as “someone who’s lazy, trifling, and will never change, etc.” (a harsh, judgmental criticism based upon what is externally, readily seen). By the same token, someone else, having enlightenment and empathy from a renewed awareness/mindset, may ponder how the individual came to be in that state, and empathizing with them, seek Wisdom and guidance in how to help.
In the former scenario the onlooker is seeing through a dark lens limiting them to a blinded perspective from which their own criticism keeps them from being a source of Light in a dark situation, while the latter’s vision, clear and untainted, empowers them to be a channel of Light, Hope, and possible Healing for the one in darkness.
As we are ALWAYS being influenced by something or someone, seen or unseen, whether conscious of it or not, it is imperative that we Daily renew our thought-life through intimacy in and with God’s Presence, that we may see from a ‘higher plane’ than that of our fallen, fallible human nature and become lightening rods for Healing, Hope, Deliverance, and Peace for ourselves and others.
In Love and Light,
SonjaLisa®️
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