A prayer of vision

Today's devotional is the final in a series on prayer.  The focus today is vision.  So we have gone through harvest, tarry, unity, love, contrition, confidence, agreement, and now vision.  

2 Chronicles 16:8 and 9 says,

Were not the Cushites and Libyans a vast army with many chariots and horsemen?  When you depended on the LORD, He had handed them over to you.  For the eyes of the LORD roam throughout the earth to show Himself strong for those who are wholeheartedly devoted to Him.  You have been foolish in this matter.  Therefore, you will have wars from now on.  

There was a time when the people of God depended on the Lord.  There was a time when they were wholeheartedly devoted to Him.  There was also a time when they stopped being dependent and a time when they were not wholeheartedly devoted.  God calls these actions of not being dependent and not being devoted to God as being foolish.  When our vision veers from God we start to do foolish things and consequences follow that is God correcting our course.  He is giving us back some "God glasses" to put on because we have taken them off and put on some cool "our glasses" for a time.  Those consequences can be great that we experience and we need even more our vision on God to see our way back to Him.  We are the prodigal son on the road coming back to the loving father because our eyes are opened to our foolishness of going away from him.

Proverbs 29:18 says,

Without revelation people run wild, but one who follows divine instruction will be happy.

Here is a great shorter verse to say this principle of God in another way.  When our vision is focused on God we will be happy but when our vision is not on God the result is people running wild.  We have individuals walking into houses of worship with loaded weapons to unload and individuals who plant pipe bombs to take out those who might be on the other side of the political aisle.  Our vision on God and what God says and our obedience to it is necessary for us individually and corporately to experience a happiness, a sense of security.  All the more that we need churches that are preaching and teaching and living out in our world His instruction on a daily basis.

Hebrews 4:11 through 13 says,

Let us then make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall into the same disobedience.  For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow.  It is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.  No creature is hidden from Him, but all things are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give an account.

As we look at vision and our prayers for seeing it and having a serenity from it, the Bible rises to the top in what needs to be a part of our lives and the life of the church.  It is the Bible that we have to use to penetrate and judge even the thoughts and intentions of the heart.  The Bible, God's words, can dress down a situation to what He sees beyond our attempt to solve this situation our way instead of His way.  When our vision is not on God, we will be made naked and exposed by Him and His words.  We need to use these words He has given us above any other words that we might create.

Luke 11:33 through 35 says,

No one lights a lamp and puts it in the cellar or under a basket, but on a lampstand, so that those who come in may see its light.  Your eye is the lamp of the body.  When your eye is healthy, your whole body is also full of light.  But when it is bad, your body is also full of darkness.  Take care, then, that the light in you is not darkness.

Are your eyes healthy?  How would you know?  Are they looking at God?  Are you putting yourself in a place that His words are sinking into your soul?  Are they so sinking in that they are now pouring out of you to be seen by those around you?  Are your words and actions pointing to God?  Is the light out of the cellar and from under the basket and on the lampstand for all to see?  We need to "take care" that our eyes, our lives, are focused on 

God.  It will take work and continual commitment to do so because our eyes are prone to wander.

2 Corinthians 4:16 through 18 says,

Therefore we do not give up.  Even though our outer person is being destroyed, our inner person is being renewed day by day.  For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory.  So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen.  For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

When the world is trying to solve its problems by destroying each other, don't give up on being renewed day by day with your focus not on what is seen but what is unseen.  May our vision go beyond the immediate circumstance to an eternal view of what God is preparing for us and those who believe in His name.  As outward deterioration is happening, may there be daily inward renewal to the One who has made it possible for us to have justification before God and salvation that does beyond what we see now.

Matthew 5:8 says,

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

How do we be pure in heart?  If we are to be pure in heart, us who are evil, then we need to come before the One who is pure, the only One, and keep our eyes focused on Him.  We need to follow His movements.  We need to read His words.  We need to speak His words.  He need to see that seeing Him is more important than us being seen.  When we set our eyes upon will determine what will be the condition of our hearts.  If our eyes are on Jesus then our lives will reflect His purity.  If our eyes are not on Jesus then our lives will reflect our evilness.  We need so desperately to pray for our vision to be laser focused on God.

I have been so thankful for this resource that I came across that has given us these Scriptures to ponder when it comes to prayer.  The man who put these into my hands has the name William Hope, or Will for short and therefore Will Hope.  A little play on words to see our prayers as calling on the will of God that brings about a secured hope of what He has said will come based on what He has already done.  Let us pray.

"Lord, search me and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.  See, if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.  Father, illumine our minds with that which is true, and noble, and right, and pure, and lovely, and excellent and praiseworthy.  Help us hold firmly to the word of life that we might shine like stars in the sky, and guide a lost world to Your redeeming love.  In Jesus' name, Amen!"

Pastor Adam