If you want to become something you first have to see it. Ask Tiger Woods or LeBron James about seeing the shot before they take it. Ask any successful athlete or businessperson and they will tell you the necessity and value of visualizing a thing before achieving it. You must SEE the object of your desire in plain sight or in your minds eye. What you look at will change you. It will mold you into it’s image.
If you can’t see it, you can’t be it. If you want to see a profit in your business, then you devise a plan of profitability and not just revenue generation. If you want to see something other than your home life you focus on work. If you want to see life without blemishes, you fix your eyes on Facebook. We look at what we desire and what we want to become. In turn, what we see in the world around us is the heart of people.
It’s critical to see clearly and understand what you see. This is easier said than done. An Old Testament prophet reflected on people in his generation, ‘You have seen many things, but you pay no attention: your ears are open, but you do not listen.” Isaiah 42:20. Years later, Jesus understood the same situation and dealt with it accordingly…’ “This is why I speak to them in parables: ‘Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.’ ” Matthew 13:13.
When we look at a thing why do we not see clearly and understand? A common denominator that thwarts the ability to see things clearly is the condition of your heart. Jesus taught that a hardened heart was at the center of seeing and understanding. ‘ “…Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear?…” ‘ Mark 8:17-18.
Greed and anger effect judgement, sight and understanding. Greed and anger are sin and sin separates us and causes us to harden our hearts to God. Greed was alive and well in the late 90’s when the stock market looked out 10 years at the earnings potential of a company and saw inevitability; a crash soon followed that effected us all. In 2019, those of a certain persuasion are so angry they see impeachment as a simple means to an end; what follows won’t be good for any of us. We need to SEE God to become more like Him. Geez, can that be done??!!
No one has ever seen God, but Jesus claimed to be the Son of God. The author of Hebrews said…’Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith…Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.’ Hebrews 12:2-3. Headlines that vacillate between dire economic consequences for Brexit, political choices, dramatic climate changes that destroy crops, marriages that are destroyed by despair and infidelity….it’s hard not to grow weary after a while. The only way NOT to lose heart is to keep your sight fixed appropriately. You are what you see.
First, you gotta know what you need to see. Seeing Jesus may not be the easiest thing to do but it is the answer to terrorism, racism, sexism, classism and every other ‘ism you can name. As Kanye rapped in 2009…
I ain’t here to argue about His facial features Or here to convert atheists into believers I’m just tryna say the way school needs teachers The way Kathy Lee needed Regis, that’s the way I need Jesus
Thoughtful people at some point look towards Jesus but they hijack the gospel and get sidetracked in one or two aspects of Him. Only seeing Jesus’ stance against social injustice but not His views on sexual choices and perversions is the same as not believing. ‘The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.’ (my emphasis) 2 Corinthians 4:4. When you only see Jesus from a worldly perspective to enhance an agenda of power, pleasure or money, it can be worse than not seeing Him at all …you can lose your sight completely.
You are what you see and your sight is effected by how you see the living God and His Son, Jesus. Our world needs to see Jesus now more than ever. Christians are in the cross hairs and the world calls it cognitive dissonance when we don’t embody each word in THE Word. The best way to help others see Him is to boldly speak out what we believe… then acknowledge and humbly repent for how short we fall…but Jesus saves. The world needs a savior, not another person or politician with a plan of action.
If we don’t look for and see with clarity the enormity and power of Jesus, we are more vulnerable to the consequences of being myopic…and wrong. The consequences of not seeing Jesus in 2020 will be more catastrophe in our world and your world. I want to run my life, my business and my relationships to let others see Him in me…and I can’t do it without seeing Him more clearly myself.