DEVOTIONS

Monday, May 8 – “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Mathew 6:21) How does what you treasure, out there, take up residence in your heart, in here?  It comes through your eyes.  You desire that which you fix your eyes upon.  You can’t desire that which you have never seen.  Seeing is to desire as believing is to faith.  You can’t have faith without believing and you can’t have desire without seeing.  Your eyes are truly the windows of your heart.  Today, pay attention to what you fix your eyes upon.  For that will help you to understand all that you treasure.      

Tuesday, May 9 – “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people.” (Ephesians 1:18) Where you live is very familiar to you.  Well, close your eyes and walk around.  How many pieces of furniture, walls and corners do you run into?  No matter how well you think you know something, without actually seeing it, you run the risk of getting hurt.  When it comes to God, make sure that you are truly seeing.  Not just walking around relying on your memory of what you think you have seen in the past.   

Wednesday, May 10 – “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.” (Romans 1:21) There is a difference between seeing something and fixing your eyes upon something.  The former is a passing thing.  No significance, other than the recognition that something is in your line of sight.  The latter is concentration.  Fixing your eyes on something because it is what you truly treasure.  You desire to have it, experience it, learn from it and live with it.  How do you see God? 

Thursday, May 11 – “Your eye is the lamp of your body.  When your eyes are healthy, your whole body also is full of light.  But when they are unhealthy, your body also is full of darkness.” (Luke 11:34) The Bible isn’t teaching us that blind people are full of darkness.  The analogy of the eye is simply a reference to what you treasure.  If you treasure something you will look for it, desire it and ultimately find it.  This is true regardless of the physical health of your actual eyes.  If what you are looking for and desiring are earthly treasures, darkness will take over your life.  If what you are looking for and desiring are heavenly treasures, then light will take over your life. 

Friday, May 12 – “See to it then, that the light within you is not darkness.” (Luke 11:35) How can darkness be light?  Have you ever walked around your home, in the dark?  Your eyes are able to adjust enough to see, relatively speaking, where you’re going.  You think you are seeing clearly, but you are in the dark.  What Jesus is talking about in this verse is a warning not to be fooled into believing that this darkness vision is perfect vision. Yes, you can get by.  But you can’t read, see detail or colors.  You can’t see stains or dirt or distance.  This darkness seeing is good, but it isn’t the great that God has prepared for you.

Saturday, May 13 – “But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.” (2 Corinthians 11:3) How was Eve able to be deceived by the serpent?  Because there was something in her heart that desired to be like God.  All the serpent needed to do was simply invite her to see the possibility of fulfilling that desire.  Eve looked at the fruit, that she was commanded not to eat, and she desired it.  For it could give her what she truly desired, to be like God.  Her desire won.  The desires of your heart will always win.  For your desires will instruct your eyes to look for whatever you desire.  Pay attention to what your eyes are seeing, for it will reveal the desires of your heart.