Saturday, January 10, 2015

Open Your Eyes


"Give me Your eyes for just one second, give me Your eyes so I can see everything that I keep missing, give me Your love for humanity. Give me Your arms for the brokenhearted, the ones that are far beyond my reach. Give me Your heart for the ones forgotten, give me Your eyes so I can see." -Brandon Heath

If you don't recognize these lyrics, this song is "Give Me Your Eyes" by Brandon Heath. I love this song so much, because it perfectly demonstrates how the majority of us are. We so easily get caught up in our life, our culture, ourselves, that we can't even see what we need to see. We tend to forget about what God truly cares about. We forget that the people we encounter everyday have stories and feelings and passions just like we do. We forget to actually care when we ask how someone is doing. We get so used to going going going, that we forget to take the time and soak in what really matters in life, loving God and out of that love, loving others.

Jesus summed up all of the commands into these two: 1.) Love God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:30) and 2.) Love your neighbor as yourself (Mark 12:31). It is out of our love for God that we find the strength to love others.

What does it look like to love someone? 1 John 3:18 puts it like this: "Little children, let us love not in word or speech, but in truth and action." To make this even more clear, take the story of the Good Samaritan:


"Jesus replied and said, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went away leaving him half dead. And by chance a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion, and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. On the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, 'Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return I will repay you.'" 'Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers' hands?' And he said, 'The one who showed mercy toward him.' Then Jesus said to him, 'Go and do the same.'" (Luke 10:30-37)

How many times are we the religious Levites and the religious priests, who talk about how we just love God SO much, but then go straight passed someone when we see them hurting? How many times do we ignore those who are alone and continue on with our lives while we pretend they're not there? How many times do we avoid extending a helping hand to people in need simply because we are afraid to step out of what's normal and socially acceptable into what may be awkward and uncomfortable?

When we look at the story of the Good Samaritan, we see that he was different than the Levite and the priest. While they saw the hurting man and kept going as if nothing had happened, the Samaritan felt compassion and interrupted his journey to help him. He went above and beyond what was expected. While he could have followed suit and continued on his journey like the Levite and the priest, he chose not to. He chose to put himself, his schedule, his obligations, his whatever aside in order to help the man who was hurting. How many times can we say that we have done that? Honestly, speaking for myself, I can probably count the number of times that I have went completely out of my way, altering my entire schedule to help someone, on one hand (so I'm speaking to myself here, too!). It's so easy to just stick to what is convenient for us and bypass someone when we're only focused on ourselves. "I don't have the time", "I don't have the money", "I don't have the energy", I, I, I!! We make helping others all about us, but in reality it's not about us at all! We can so easily come up with excuse after excuse after excuse as to why we can't help someone, but that's not what God is looking for. He's not looking for our excuses. He doesn't care about what we don't have. He's asking us to use what we DO have in order to show love in truth and in action. At the end of the story of the Good Samaritan, Jesus doesn't just say, "Isn't that wonderful what he did?! Isn't that SO nice of him?!" No, Jesus said "Go and do the same." and He is talking to you and to me.

When we look at this story, we see that it is not until the Samaritan felt compassion that he went on to help the man who was hurting. "Compassion is not just an emotion, it is an action to do something for another who is in need. It's not enough to just feel bad for someone, but it's vital to do something about it.It's easy for us to look at someone in need and feel bad and wish we could help, but it's not so easy for us to actually do something about what we have seen.

Why is it so important for us to actually do something? Why can't we just feel bad and then go pray? Well we can, but that's only one part of it. James 2:15-16 explains it this way: "If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and be filled," and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?" Think about that. Really think about it. Put yourself in the situation. Have you ever needed something, and you appreciated every prayer that someone gave you, but at the same time you knew they could do more, and you wondered why they didn't? Well, again, the Bible says in 1 John 3:17, "But whoever has the world's goods and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?" Yes, prayer and faith are wonderful and yes they do indeed work and can move mountains, but at the same time, faith without works is dead. (James 2:17). If you are able to do something, then do it. I'm not saying you have to give what you don't have and pay what you can't afford in order to help someone, but what I am saying, is that if you have it, then give it, and we all have something.

Before you start rolling your eyes, or telling me that I don't know what you have, or even thinking to yourself that you don't have anything to give, stop. STOP. I'm serious. Stop. Take a minute to reflect and think about how much you DO have. If you can't think of anything, ask God to show you. Once you realize how much stuff you do have, think about someone you may (or may not) know who doesn't have nearly as much as you. Think about the person who could really use that pair of shoes you bought 6 months ago and have only worn once, or all of those leftovers you threw away recently. Whatever the case may be, whatever you have, whether it's big or small, whether it's a lot or a little, you have something, which means you have something to give. Ask God to open your eyes to the world around you, to the people around you, to the people who are in need, to the people who are hurting, to the people who have less than you have. Ask God to give you His eyes, so that we may see people the way that He does. And Ask God to give you His heart, so that when we feel compassion, we don't just allow it to remain a feeling, but we turn that feeling into an action. "When we allow Him to work through us, we have new eyes to see His beautiful Kingdom and to love deeper."


Ask God to show you how you can use what He has given you to bless others, and believe me, He WILL show you.




God Bless!
-Elisha ♡