Open Eyes, Open Heart

 

Acts 26:18 "to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me."

Ephesians 4:18 "They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts."

If you are living your life with your eyes and your heart closed off from God, then you are living in darkness. When your heart is closed off to God (hardened), that gives Satan an open door to get into your mind, and whisper in your ear encouraging you to give in to worldly desires to satisfy your flesh. 

Living in darkness keeps you from receiving true love, joy, peace and forgiveness, which only comes from the Lord Jesus Christ. Satan wants to keep you as far away from the light of Jesus Christ as he can. He knows as soon as you receive the precious, perfect gift of salvation through Jesus, he has lost his hold on you.

John 8:12 "When Jesus spoke again to the people he said, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

John 10:28 "I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand."

The Bible tells us that God's word is alive and active. If your eyes are closed and your heart is hardened, then you won't be able to see God, or allow God to work in your life. When you hear God's word, his word will flow towards your heart, but because your heart is hardened, it bounces back. Kind of like a bouncy ball when it hits the floor and bounces up and keeps bouncing until it finally runs out of surfaces to bounce off of. 

But, since God's word is alive and active, it doesn't stop bouncing! Even though God's word didn't penetrate into your heart right away. Doesn't mean that God's word has lost its power. The Holy Spirit will work to soften the "soil" of your heart. The word of God is like a seed. In time, the seed of God will plant itself into your heart and it will grow and lead you to salvation and healing. 

Matthew 13:15 "For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn, and I would heal them."

Hebrews 4:12 "For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing souls and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart."

As I was writing this post the praise and worship song *"Open the Eyes of My Heart", popped into my mind. The main verse of the song is, "Open the eyes of my heart Lord, open the eyes of my heart, I want to see you....." Basically, what this verse means is, if you ask the Lord to open the eyes of your heart, you will see him. 

Obviously, your heart doesn't have eyes, but it means when you open yourself to the Lord, and expect to "see" him, the Lord will come into your life. The Lord desires to have a relationship with you, no matter what you have done in your past. He doesn't care about what kind of house you live in, or what job you have, he loves and cares about you just the way you are. None of us deserve the precious gift of salvation that Jesus Christ has given us, but by his blood we are cleansed and forgiven. 

Ephesians 1:18 "I pray that the eyes of your heart will 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."

*Open the Eyes of My Heart written by Paul Baloche in 1997. 

Waves of Forgiveness, Waves of Repentance

 

Luke 17:3-4 "So watch yourselves. If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying "I repent", you must forgive them.

Just as waves build up across the water, so does our sin. We tend to allow things in our life to build up, and unintentionally it builds up so much that we hit a crashing point and it flows out of us in a sinful way.  

When this happens, we need to be quick to realize our sin, and repent. Repent means to turn away from sin/wrongdoing and feel deep remorse for it. Then, we need to ask for forgiveness, first to the Lord then, to the person (s) that we sinned against. Even if it is one sin or several sins. Once a day or several times a day, week or month. (Waves of Repentance)

Also, we need to be quick to forgive others when they sin against us. Even if its several times a day, week or month that they come to us to ask for our forgiveness. We all have "those" days when everything seems to go the wrong way, and we lose it, and unfortunately fall into sin. (Waves of Forgiveness)

Matthew 18:21-22 "Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times? " Jesus answered, not seven times but seventy-seven times."

Acts 3:19 "Repent, then, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord."

Each of us are sinners. The Bible tells us that all of us fall short of God's glory, because of our sin.(Romans 3:23) No matter how "good" we view ourselves, we are still sinners. It's only by the blood of Jesus Christ that we are forgiven and cleansed from our sins. 

Romans 3:23-24 "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came from Christ Jesus."

Each of us are responsible to participate in both the waves of forgiveness and waves of repentance. The Bible tells us that we need to forgive others just as our Father in Heaven has forgiven us. It is our responsibility to repent as soon as we realize our sin. 

If we wait, to do either one, then the unforgiven sin, and the unrepented sin, will just build up and cause division in our lives. It will separate us from our relationship to the Lord, and cause issues in our relationships with the people in our lives as well. We will also lose our peace, and it could cause bitterness to build up in our hearts.

Ephesians 4:32 "Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you."

Isaiah 59:2 "But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear."