S E E I N G

As Christians we are not only to live with a self-consciousness, but we are also to be God conscious.  In order for us to be able to do that, we first need to be able to see. It’s one thing to read the Bible and know that you have areas that need Jesus, it’s another to see it and acknowledge it.

There was a time when I was living beneath the life that God had planned for me. I knew what the Bible said, I could quote some scriptures for you but I was not fully seeing myself in them. I went to watch the movie Noah. While watching that movie, instead of seeing the rebellious people as characters in a movie, God opened my eyes, and I could see myself in them. I could see me. I could see where I had hurt God and people and where I had gone wrong. My eyes were open.

From that moment in the movie theatre I went home, I prayed, and my life has not been the same since. Step by step, day by day God brought my life back on track. We cannot underestimate the value of seeing.

Mark 8:22:25, “When they arrived at Bethsaida, some people brought a blind man to Jesus, begging him to touch him and heal him. So Jesus led him, as his sighted guide, outside the village. He placed his saliva on the man’s eyes and covered them with his hands.  Then he asked him, “Now do you see anything?” “Yes,” he said. “My sight is coming back! I’m beginning to see people, but they look like trees—walking trees.” Jesus put his hands over the man’s eyes a second time and made him look up. The man opened his eyes wide and he could see everything perfectly. His eyesight was completely restored!”

When we first come to Jesus, we are like the blind man. We know we need help. We know we need Jesus. Then we get saved. We are not as blind as we were before, but we don’t see fully either. Some people are content to live that way. In fact, most people settle there. They are better than they were before, and they did have an encounter with Jesus so seeing men as trees must be as good as it gets. But no. Salvation is only the beginning.

We cannot be too timid to approach God and ask Him to touch us again. We cannot “hide” our condition from God. He knows our condition, but He waits for us to realise that something is not right. For as long as we are comfortable seeing men as trees, living life beneath what God has for us, we won’t recognise our need for God and if we don’t recognise our need for God, we don’t get to experience all that God has for us. The blind man after the first touch when Jesus asked, “do you see anything” could have said, “Yes, my sight is back.” And left it there. Went home, better but not quite where he was meant to be.

Instead, he was honest with God. He didn’t give up or settle thinking, “this is as good as it gets.” No. He said to Jesus in effect, I am better than I was, but I know I am not where I should be.

That’s where a lot of us are. Better than we were but not where we should be. Being able to see means you see your condition as it is, not as you want it to be. It means being sensitive to the Holy Spirit when He says, “Perhaps you should not have said that to that person,” and recognising that He’s right. There’s room for growth in us. There is room for growth in me.

Love and blessings,

Melissa Tsingano.