How does someone who is blind to the glory of God, come to see Him for He truly is?
The natural eyes, ears, and brains are part of the process. Without them, we can or see or hear the natural things that reveal God’s glory -creation, gospel, scripture, and Jesus as human and fully God. But natural seeing is not decisive in seeing the glory of God.
In Matthew 13:13 it says,
“Therefore I speak to them in parables because seeing they don’t see, and hearing they don’t hear, neither do they understand.”
Something more than the use of the natural eyes, ears, and brain must happen. The way Paul puts it in Ephesians 1:18 is we that we must have “the eyes of our hearts enlightened, that you will know.”
This may sound strange -the heart has eyes. But not beyond comprehension.
Sometimes it can be difficult to know how to respond when we look around and disasters are happening and evil looks like it’s winning. Sometimes it’s difficult not to allow temporary troubles to affect our peace.
In 2 Corinthians 4:18, Paul describes what our response should be to these difficulties: to look through the trouble to what lasts forever.
So, we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, because that would be impossible. What is seen is temporary, but what is unseen lasts forever.
Paul is not saying we should fix our physical eyes on what can’t be seen because that would be impossible. Instead, he is saying we should focus our internal spiritual eyes on the eternal.
The eyes in our heads help us to see what’s going on ng on around us and the eyes of our hearts see through what’s going on around us to see the eternal end game.
When you look at the world around you the war, the hatred, the killing, the self-promotion, pride, deception, and horror, do you see only with your physical eyes or do you see with the eyes of your heart? Do you only see despair and hopelessness? Or are you looking toward eternity and the One who is invisible but faithful, loving, sovereign, and entirely good?
The biggest struggles we face now are temporary, but the purity and goodness of eternity will last forever. This too will pass.
“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity into man’s hearts yet so that he cannot find what God has done from the beginning to the end” – Ecclesiastes 3:11
From Pity to Praise 