Open My Eyes, Lord,
That I Might See
Scripture records many stories of God opening his children’s eyes. One example is that of Hagar. This Egyptian servant girl was thrust out of Abraham’s camp with her child, Ishmael. Her food ran out, and she was perishing.
She cried out to God in her despair, and, as the story says quite simply, “God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water.” It was enough water to save their lives. God opened her eyes and she saw a well. Some people may think that God conjured up a well in the wilderness, and then Hagar saw what God had produced.
I believe that there was a well there all along that she had never observed before. When God touched her and opened her eyes, she could see something that was part of her life but that she would never have seen if not for the quickening, illuminating touch of God.
There are incredible resources in your life that you may miss if you do not let Christ touch your eyes. You will find there are things in your natural possession about which you would never have known and that you would never have utilized if it had not been for his quickening touch.
I had the privilege of sitting with a missionary in Korea who was responsible for feeding eighteen thousand widows and orphans a day. We sat on a hilltop overlooking a saltwater lake. At least that’s what I saw: a lake formed by the tide. This missionary envisioned rice fields that could feed his orphans and widows. He saw a stone causeway that would hold back the tide. He saw the rain that would fill up the low places and make possible the rice fields that would supply food for the people.
God had given this man a burden and a responsibility, and God was opening his eyes to see what he could do to meet those demands. And the missionary did just what God had shown him he could do.
Has God given you a burden? Somewhere there are resources for you to meet that responsibility. You must have his quickening touch on the eyes of your imagination so you can see the resources that are available to you.
—Dennis Kinslaw
This Day with the Master
God’s provision may actually be in place, if only we had the eyes to see it. Like that old expression, ‘We cannot see the forest for the trees,’ our natural eyes often miss God’s hand all around us. We look out with natural eyes and see our position as hopeless. Like Elijah’s men, we see that we are surrounded and cry out, ‘What shall we do?’ Like Elijah, we should pray that God would open our eyes, that we, like Elijah’s men, might be awakened to the reality, “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” How many miraculous feedings do we disciples need to see before we realize our Lord can feed the multitudes with five loaves and two fish? This ought to be a matter of regular prayer for us: Open my eyes, Lord, that I might see the bigger picture; His hand in the process, and His provision for the matter at hand. Christ doesn’t send us out empty-handed; He abides with us in the journey. Will we trust Him? Will we ask Him to show us that which our natural eyes cannot see? —DH
—David Hoskins, Founder & Care Guide, Sanctuary Clinics