Consider This: The Need for Open Eyes

“Give us open eyes to our blessings”.

I accidentally prayed that phrase many years ago. I had not planned it, nor had I thought about it ahead of time. It just happened.

Since then, I have repeated it a lot. I almost always include it in any public prayer. I have come to believe that having open eyes is of supreme importance.

Too often, we are drowning in blessings, yet we are discontent. We could do so much good for others, but we think only of ourselves. We have been gifted a million wonderful pleasures, yet focus on our few small problems.

Open eyes would change that situation. Seeing what we actually have would cause us to be grateful, generous and kind.

Not only that, seeing how God has blessed us would help us trust him. The future would be less scary if I remembered what God had done for me in the past. Faith must look back occasionally. Not in a nostalgic, longing way, but as a reminder that God walked with us and will continue to do so.

In the Old Testament, God instituted feasts and gave all sorts of commands that forced his people to talk about and celebrate his care for them. For example, after God stopped the flow of the Jordan River so that his people could cross on dry ground, he told them to gather twelve stones and pile them up on the riverbank. Why? So that “In the future when your descendants ask their parents, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground’” (Joshua 21-22). Looking back helps us see the future properly.

We need to see that God is still with us.

We need to see what we have.

We need to see those around us.

We need to see where we can help.

We need open eyes!

“Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful” (Colossians 4:2)

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