God Opens Our Eyes
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 Kinlaw,
This Day with the Master
Sometimes what we need most is already right in front of us—we just can’t see it until God touches our eyes. Dennis Kinlaw reminds us through Hagar’s story that God’s provision isn’t always about creating something new; it’s often about revealing what was there all along. Whether it’s a hidden well in the desert or the potential in a tide-filled basin, God’s quickening touch enables us to perceive and use the resources He’s already placed in our path. If you’re carrying a burden today, don’t despair. Ask God to open your eyes. What you need may be nearer than you think. —DH
—David Hoskins, Founder & Care Guide, Sanctuary Clinics