OPEN OUR EYES LORD - PERSPECTIVE

2 Kings 6:17 - And Elisha prayed, "O Lord, open his eyes so he may see." Then the LORD opened the servant's eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

Look, here's the story. Some bigwig in Syria is a little miffed that his well thought-out plans against Israel are foiled even before he can act. Not happy, he questions his staff. There's got to be a lead somewhere! To his surprise, he finds himself up against a prophet who's so into God that he doesn't have to go anywhere close to Syria to know what's going on. This is only the backdrop to the real story. Truth is you get to see how tight Elisha is with God. So tight that this Syrian king sends an army to surround Elisha's dwelling place. Morning comes and Elisha's servant goes outside for the paper (no, not really, but he did go outside), sees the army and comes running into the house screaming, "what shall we do?"

This servant has seen reality right out his front door and holy man, Elisha, who hadn't seen a thing, responds with "do not fear, for those who are with you are more than those who are with them." Hello!!!!! Mr. Elisha, you weren't the one outside! You weren't the one outside greeting an angry army ready to kick some serious...well, you get the picture. What do you mean, "do not fear?!" But isn't that so like us? We got bills due yesterday, creditors lining up calls today and no money prospects tomorrow! In our distress someone gives us a few words of encouragement and we think, "who do they think they are?" Prophet? Pastor? Well-meaning Christian friend? Ha! They're so heavenly minded that they aren't worth any earthly good and now they're telling us, in the midst of some major trouble to "fear not," or "don't worry, God is faithful." Reality check here!!!

But wait. With God's word, let's do a reality check, shall we? Elisha must have known something to obviously be so faith-driven that he didn't even have to look at the situation to know everything was going to be alright. What? Look at 2 Kings 6:17 - And Elisha prayed and said, "Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see." Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he say. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. Whoa (no horse pun intended), wait a minute. Opened his eyes? Wasn't the servant just out there beholding the reality of an angry army? Yeah, but, isn't faith the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen? (Hebrews 11:6)

The situation remained the same, but what changed? The servant's perspective. This young man was seeing things in a totally different light. And God was not about to become inconsistent with His nature and with His people. Elisha saw things through God's eyes. That's why he was able to report to the king of Israel everything going on in Syria without ever leaving the comfort of his home. And when impossible situations presented themselves, Elisha was secure enough in his faith to believe the vision of a faithful God and pray that his servant would see things a little more clearly.

If you haven't figured it out by now, there is a moral to this story. "But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for He who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him" (Hebrews 11:6). Times are rough. Hey, don't I know it. Problems on every hand. Circumstances can, and I do mean will, get the better of us all. We've lived in the servant mentality from time to time because we just can't see beyond the reality before us. We're human and we do have a tendency to "see" with the human eyes God's given us. Hey, go figure. But a changed perspective -- no matter what the situation -- can save us a lot of heartache, grief, pain and sorrow. Fear not. That's right. Fear not. God is a perspective changer. Circumstances may never change but our perspective on the matter can and should. Life's too short to sped it worrying if things will ever get better. Diligently seek God's perspective on the situation and allow it to change and transform your sight!

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HAPPY THANKSGIVING!