SPIRITUAL GLASSES

I started wearing glasses in middle school.

I was sitting in the back of the classroom and caught myself squinting at the whiteboard to read the math equations. Everything was becoming more and more blurry, so my mother did what any other mother would do: she took me to the eye doctor, and of course, the answer was glasses. As the years went on, I began to need them more and more to see clearly. In addition to seeing the whiteboard in school, I started to need them to drive, to watch television, to really do anything other than read what was right in front of me. I needed glasses to see things clearly. 

What does God’s Word do other than just that? 

I just taught my Sunday School kids about how Scripture gives us our very own "spiritual glasses". And just like glasses in the natural: we MUST wear them every day to see clearly. Jesus is the Word, and the Word is God. The Word always was, and always will be. So why would we not think to exclusively look through its lens?

John 1:1-4 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.”

The Bible will teach us to walk the way Jesus walks. It will help us to SEE.

It will light the way in darkness

Psalm 119:105“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”

It will give us peace during trials and tribulations

John 14:27“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

It will work forgiveness in our hearts

Matthew 18:21-22“Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? 22 Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.”

It will show us our own humanness and the error of our ways

Proverbs 14:12 “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”

It will protect us from the lies of the enemy

Ephesians 6:11-13 “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. 13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”

It will sustain our life

Psalm 91:3-6 “Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. 4 He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler. 5 Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; 6 Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.”

Isaiah 4:6 “And even to your old age I am he; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you.”

Psalm 55:22 “Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.”

We will never be able to see the path clearly without these glasses on at all times. The world (without their glasses on) tells us that God’s dominion, His counsel, His direction - is bondage. 

Psalm 2:1-3 “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? 2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying, 3 Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us” 

But oh how He BREAKS the true bondage off of us! That we may live FREE of sin and death! Jesus died and rose again, so that we could live free of sin!!

Romans 5:20-21, Romans 6:1-7“....But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: 21 That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. 6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? 3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: 6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 7 For he that is dead is freed from sin.”

But the world is against this. It wants to go against our Heavenly Father, and will try to convince you to do the same.

We did an exercise while doing this lesson in Sunday school, where I had one child close their eyes and try to lead the other to a specific area. What you’re imagining is right: that was a disaster. And that’s exactly what I wanted to prove: the blind (the world) only leads to destruction. It has no other course it can take, because it cannot see clearly. So how can we see clearly if we are not equipped with the lens of the Word of God?

Psalm 119:130“The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.”

God desires to enlighten us with who He is. He desires that we be His children! And what is a child to his father, but to grow up to look like, talk like, and act just like him?

We have everything we need to live in God alone. And He gave us the Bible to help us on our journey. We have every resource imaginable right there in the very Word of God. The Holy Spirit will guide our understanding into all truth - divine truth; God’s power alone can bring us as believers into the riches of the final glory when we reach heaven. So why would He not give us the resources and “sight” to walk through this life?

Ephesians 1:17-23 “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: 18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, 19 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, 20 Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, 21 Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: 22 And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, 23 Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.”

Jesus is the HEAD of the church (the body) - directing us into His will if we would only submit to Him. We in Him, Him in us, leading and guiding us into all wisdom far above our own. All we have to do is put our spiritual glasses on.