Open Up Your Eyes: How to Shift Your Perspective to Gain Peace
What you behold shapes who you become.
These days, there are so many things gunning for our attention, hoping we’d set our gaze upon them long enough to win our hearts, our allegiance and our submission.
And whether we realize it or not, our obedience to the voices that swirl around and within us will inevitably shape the type of people we’ll become.
One voice shouts, “Look without!” Its tyrannical tone entices us to place our hope in political leaders or societal structures as the means by which we can feel assured that everything will be okay.
Another tells us “look within,” beckoning us into self-sufficiency or self-centered efforts—whether religious, “spiritual” or humanistic—as the answer for resolving our wrestles with the brokenness of our humanity.
Listening to the first voice ultimately causes us to become fearful, anxious and calloused as we see that both man and the structures they create always seem promising in the beginning but end up showing themselves to be crooked and crippling.
Listening to the other voice tends to make us feel immense shame. While initially stroking our egos to make us feel invincible, we ultimately discover no matter how hard we try, strive or perform, we simply cannot fix ourselves, and end up feeling like failures in the process.
The road both voices are calling us to build our lives upon is a fallible, faulty foundation that offers no hope or lasting transformation.
Peace is always promised, yet it’s never found.
But there’s another voice, whose whisper sounds gentle and other-worldly, whose invitation simultaneously holds within it the authority of a command: “Look up.”
TUNE IN TO OUR DISCUSSION + PRAYER SESSION ABOUT HOW Beholding God Brings Unshakable Peace.
Today’s Meditation
Isaiah 6:1-7 & Exodus 3:1-6
While reading of these wild encounters with God that the prophets Isaiah & Moses had, I couldn’t stop thinking about how both of these men had eyes to see God.
They were both in the middle of business as usual when they found themselves enthralled in the presence of the Almighty Creator.
But what I love most about their encounters is that though it was God who was responsible for opening their eyes, they chose to turn from their own way & set their gaze upon him.
What they saw—or rather, Who—changed the trajectory of their lives. They became completely undone in God’s presence as they beheld the Holy Lord of All, and none of the worries, tasks or needs of their finite lives mattered more than simply being with the Infinite One.
As you read + meditate on these verses I want you to ask yourself:
What is holiness, and do you see God as holy? How does your perspective affect how you see yourself and the daily decisions you make?
Do you find yourself often excited about God and the things of faith, or bored? Why do you think that is?
Think on your life + list the things you give your time/attention to, from the most to the least. (i.e. God, work, family, social media, church, friends/community, hobbies, travel, fun, etc.) Are your priorities shaping you to look more like Jesus or the culture?
Of the 3 voices mentioned earlier, which do you honestly feel you listen to the most? How has following that voice shaped how you see God, yourself and the world around you?
When we behold God and fix our gaze upon him, we see ourselves rightly in light of who he is.
We come to terms with the undeniable reality that before our Infinite Creator we are finite, that he is holy and we are imperfect, that he is all-powerful and we are limited.
Though this is a sobering reality, it ought to bring us into a posture of humble gratitude, where we recognize just how loved we are despite who we are not.
For only a loving God would give us eyes to see him, proximity to him and opportunity to intimately know him.
Our perspective matters, and has the capability of bringing our souls the rest, peace and joy they crave.
But it’s only in our beholding of God in all of his beauty that true peace can be found.
Missed out on a Bible meditation from this fast? Catch up below!
When we empty ourselves upon God, we can be filled to the full with life.