“I can see!”  Devotional #11

            You will never guess what happened to me over the Christmas holiday!  I am nearsighted and have had to use eyeglasses or contact lenses since I was seventeen years old.  I know that the ideal is to have eyeglasses as a back up if for any reason I end up without any contact lenses.  I know that but did I do that?  Hmmm…no, I did not.  The last time I had my eyes checked I only ordered contact lenses with the thought that I would eventually order eyeglasses too but that thought turned into an afterthought.  I know, big mistake!

            Financially 2012 was another pretty rough year for my family.  Ordering a pair of eyeglasses would have surpassed our budget.  So, I did not have a backup pair of glasses.  It was just a week before Christmas and I was on my last pair of contact lenses and I tore them!  I knew that I had to make an appointment to the Optician but with Christmas around the corner and money being stretched as far as it could for presents as well as the necessities of life, I did the only thing I could do, pray for His provision and wait.  Thankfully, as usual, God’s timing and provision is always right on!  My parents’ Christmas present was that they would pay for my eye exam, contact lenses and a pair of eyeglasses!  (They had a wonderful coupon!)  A little over a week after Christmas I was sitting in the eye exam chair!  Contact lenses and a pair of glasses ordered!  I can see!  Thank God!

This experience reminded me of the wonderful gift eyesight is and what a wonderful gift seeing the world through God’s eyes is through His Holy Spirit.  The moment the contact lenses were on I could see the world around me with clarity.  It’s the same with the Holy Spirit.  As believers in Christ the world around us is seen with clarity if and when we are sensitive to the leading of His Spirit.  In Galatians 5:25 it says, “Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives.” (The Message) 

When Jesus told the disciples He was going to be leaving and sending the Holy Spirit to them as their helper he explained just how the Spirit would be helpful.  In John 16:12-15 Jesus said, “I still have many things to tell you, but you can’t handle them now. But when the Friend comes, the Spirit of the Truth, he will take you by the hand and guide you into all the truth there is. He won’t draw attention to himself, but will make sense out of what is about to happen and, indeed, out of all that I have done and said. He will honor me; he will take from me and deliver it to you. Everything the Father has is also mine. That is why I’ve said, ‘He takes from me and delivers to you.’ (The Message)

There is a lot that could be taught about the Holy Spirit and what a wonderful gift it is but for this devotional I will stick to the making “sense out of what is about to happen” part. One of the many things the Holy Spirit does for us is to help us live in obedience to God day in and day out.  It helps us to better understand the Lords will with our lives.  It helps us to know if what we are about to do or say is good or not…if it will be encouraging, inspiring, loving, edifying, etc.  It is through the Holy Spirit’s leading that we are shaped and molded by The Potter.  Isaiah 64:8 says, “Yet, O LORD, you are our Father.  We are the clay, you are the potter, we are all the work of your hand.”  (NIV)

It always amazes me how God uses the stuff in our lives, what I like to call the good, the bad and the ugly, to teach us new things and to remind us of what He has already taught us in the past.  I am incredibly thankful to be able to see clearly again with my new contact lenses (and in a week or so, eyeglasses too) and I am even more thankful that I can see life clearly through the leading of His Spirit. 

Thank you my dear friend for taking the time to visit my blog and read this devotional.  I am praying for you.

*If you would like to read this same devotional in Spanish or know of someone that would please visit my Spanish blog at www.ministerioreflejandolaverdad.blogspot.com