There are some things we need to be reminded of, and that is because sometimes the eyes can be deceiving. They can cause you to see things that are not there, and what we do see can scare us to death, make us sick and rob us of our peace of mind.
The eyes can make things bigger than they are. They can blow things up in our minds and have us running into walls.
The eyes can cause our imagination to run away with us. The eyes can make you think that people are staring at you when they are not even thinking about you. Two people can see an accident at the same time, but both will tell a different story about how it happened. The eyes can cause you to think the worst about something that you do see.
We had better watch our eyes. We can’t always believe what we see. The thing about the eyes is that we can’t let what we see dictate what we believe, and we can’t always react according to the way things appear to be, for things are not always as they appear.
Relationships have been broken up, friendships have been dismantled, fellowships in the local church have been interrupted, chaos has been created, and the devil has gained the upper hand within the body of Christ and the local church based on what the eyes perceive as negative.
Somebody made the statement, “Don’t believe your eyes!”
Now, I’m not saying the eyes are never right, but they can be tricky sometimes, and they can work to the advantage of the devil. That’s why we had better make sure that what we see is actually what we see.
For example, a jealous man or a jealous woman confronts their spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend every time they see them smiling and conversating with someone of the opposite sex. Being insecure, in their minds, they see every man or woman as trying to take them away from them.
“Something must be going on,” they say.
Or, “I saw you flirting with so-and-so.”
They stroll up and down their phone, seeing who they’ve been talking with, wanting to know 24/7 where they are and who they are with based on what they see.
Now, let me say to anybody in a relationship or marriage like this: This is pure torture. It puts so much stress on the relationship — stress on the one who’s jealous and stress on the one they are jealous of.
What they fail to realize is that can’t nobody take them if they don’t want to be took! And if they did get them, understand that they didn’t take them. They didn’t kidnap them. They went voluntarily!
The eyes, I tell you, can be tricky. You can’t always trust what you see. Before you make a judgment call on anything that the eyes see, make sure what you see is not a mirage, but that it’s the real thing.
But I want to remind us this morning that there are some things we cannot see: the fact that God is watching over us.
No matter where we are this morning, there are unseen beings — ministering spirits that we cannot touch or feel — guarding, surrounding and watching over us all night and all day (Hebrews 1:14).
We just need to remember that, especially when we are afraid, unsure, when we feel threatened and when we don’t know how some things are going to turn out.
Somebody is there today — unsure, afraid and threatened.
We need to remind ourselves of something this morning.
First, we need to remind ourselves that we are never alone.
This speaks to the lonely and those who feel that they don’t have anybody. In Christ Jesus, we are never alone, and we are never without protection.
We forget that sometimes.
We let what we see frighten us: what our creditors say, what our bodies say, what the devil says, what our situation says, what our money says, what other folk say. And it takes us out of ourselves.
In 2 Kings 6:15-17, an army of enemies came and surrounded Elisha by night to attack and apprehend him. Elisha’s servant rose early in the morning and saw the army. He was afraid and said to Elisha, “What shall we do?”
He was afraid, and he panicked.
He had forgotten about the miracles that Elisha had already done in chapters 4 and 5 and earlier in this chapter. He let what his eyes saw dictate what he believed.
And had he read Psalm 3:6, where the psalmist said, “I will not be afraid of 10,000 people who have set themselves against me,” maybe he would not have been afraid.
The servant was a nervous wreck. He lost sight of Elisha and Elisha’s God. But Elisha was cool, calm and collected.
Why was this?
Because the servant was looking through an eye of flesh, but Elisha was looking through an eye of faith!
Elisha said to his servant, “Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them” (verse 16).
Elisha then prayed and said, “Lord, open his eyes, that he may see.”
And the Lord opened his eyes, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire surrounding Elisha.
I pray today that God will open our eyes — to know that no enemy can harm us, no problem can overtake us and nothing can happen to us unless God allows it.
Let us open our eyes of faith.
The eyes of God are watching over us.