Forever Eyes

Christian Working Woman Transcript

Monday, August 20, 2007 - If Your Body Matched Your Soul


How are you feeling today? Got a backache, or stomach trouble, or maybe your blood pressure is a little high or you've got bunions on your feet? How's your body doing?

Recently I noticed that in John's third letter, he expressed concern about Gaius' health. He wrote: "Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well." What if I prayed for you that your body would prosper as well as your soul, like John did for Gaius? Would you be in better or worse physical condition?
For example, if your bodily health reflected your spiritual health, would your eyes be giving you trouble today? Would you have spiritual farsightedness? That's the ability many people have to see the faults of others, but they can't see their own faults up close.

Jesus said, Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye (Matthew 7:3-5).

Jesus was pretty strong about the cure for spiritual farsightedness, wasn't He? This is a disease that hypocrites have; I really don't like to think of myself in those terms, do you? But that's what we are when we see others' faults, talk about others' faults, tell others where they are wrong, and fail to first and foremost focus on the planks in our own eyes. And what I've discovered is that when I concentrate on the plank in my own eyes, it doesn't leave me much time to work on the specks in the eyes of others!

Or maybe you have spiritual nearsightedness–you look at everything through small, earthly eyes. Second Corinthians 4:18 says, So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. How can we see what is unseen? We have to have Forever Eyes.