Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart; Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art; Thou my best thought, by day or by night; Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light”.
Oh, that God would be our vision, that we would have eyes to see what He sees and act on it.
Perhaps you have seen one of those video clips of people with eye impediments who are graciously being given special new-tech glasses that enable them to see colours or depth in their vision for the first time. It’s mesmerising to watch the raw emotion unfold of the individual who is feeling overwhelmed whilst also full of gratitude for the gift. It is quite touching to view the special moment as these people are awakened to a new reality that they heard existed but had never experienced personally. The physical experience they go through is similar to what many experience as they meet Christ and suddenly begin to view the world differently (forever changed) because of newfound faith in Christ. God gives us gospel-eyes!
Once our eyes have seen and experienced the truth of the gospel, we now have gospel-eyes to view our reality. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:18
… we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal”.
We have a new reality where God should be thou our vision and the Lord of our hearts!
The Christian is one that should have a Jesus-kingdom-priority-perspective. We should pray that we see things as He sees things (despite seeing through a glass dimly in this life). We should pray as Brandon Heath sings,
Give me your eyes for just one second, Give me your eyes so I can see, Everything that I keep missing, Give me your love for humanity, Give me your arms for the broken-hearted, The ones that are far beyond my reach, Give me your heart for the ones forgotten, Give me your eyes so I can see.”
When we view life through the lens of Jesus’ heart, our hearts will break with His heart and be compelled with compassion.
Do you have gospel-eyes? Do you see things like Jesus does, like when He performed His earthly ministry? The clearest snapshot of this is found in Matthew 9:35-38 where it says that
Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
The harvest needs gospel-eyed people who have a heart to work in the harvest. Jesus’ challenge here is to all of His disciples (you and I included) to beseech the Lord of the harvest, to call on Him to give us vision and heart for His work, and then to send us and others to do it. As we ‘Fix’ our eyes on Jesus as the author of Hebrews commends us to do, we will serve, hope, and live differently. God thank you that you give us gospel-eyes to gospelise!
So, what does the term “gospelise” mean anyway? Gospelise is an old English word for ‘evangelise’ and in a culture where the similar term ‘evangelical’ has lost its meaning, we need a fresh term to replace evangelise, even if it’s an old one. Charles Spurgeon used it so it must be both old and good. He said,
I contend for this, that to gospelise a man is the greatest miracle in the world. All the other miracles are wrapped up in this one. To gospelise a man, or, in other words, to convert him, is a greater work than to open the eyes of the blind”.
God give us gospel-eyes to gospelise, so that others would get gospel-eyes.
So, to wrap up, we need gospel-eyes. We need to see things from God’s perspective if we are to follow His directive. Let’s be praying for each other’s gospel-eyes (spiritually) so that many would see truth – Give us gospel-eyes to gospelise! Amen.
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