PRAYING TO BE FULL OF LIGHT

 EYES AND LIGHT

I was reading some very familiar verses in a different translation of the Bible than I often read and it really made something stand out to me.

Your eye is the lamp of your body.  If your eye is focused, your whole body is full of light.  But if it’s evil, your body is in darkness.  Watch out, then, in case the light inside you turns to darkness.  If your whole body is illuminated, with no part in darkness, everything will be illuminated, just as you are by a flash of lightning.  Luke 11:34-36

I was particularly struck with that sentence, “Watch out, then, in case the light inside you turns to darkness.” 

I have a couple of pole lamps in my living room and when the bulbs start to go, the amount of light they give off gets dimmer and dimmer. 

Jesus is telling us that the light of truth in us can get dimmed out and powered down by what we look at and fix our attention on. 

In this age of media that has so much content that is not of the character and morals that reflect God’s heart and ways, I’m asking myself how my viewing of these things is impacting how my life can be a light.  I’m not even talking about the explicit sexual and violent content in much of evening television. Those are obviously the first things we should not keep on watching.

Right now though, I’m thinking of the anger and fighting and gossip we see on social media.  How much time do we spend looking at consumer products we don’t really need so that “I just have to have that” desire grows in us and we spend money we don’t need to spend?

How much of the light inside us has been turning to darkness and we haven’t even noticed? 

The good news is that when our eye is healthy and our viewing habits are focused in the right places our whole body is filled with light and our whole life will be radiant with God’s light.  I want that for my life today don’t You?

Thank You God for giving us eyes to be lamps and light for our bodies.  Help us physically to monitor what we are looking at today so our spirits can be filled with light. 

Make us aware of the way in which the light in us has been dimmed down.  Help us to turn from those things and turn to You.  Forgive us for any ways that we have allowed darkness to come into us.  Fill us again with Your radiant light so we can illumine everything around us for good and blessing.