Windows of our soul

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

WINDOWS OF OUR SOUL

Luke 11:33-36

33 "No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead he puts it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light. 34 Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are good, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are bad, your body also is full of darkness. 35 See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. 36 Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be completely lighted, as when the light of a lamp shines on you."

NIV

We have heard, “Let your light shine” since the very beginning. We teach songs to our children about, “This little of light of mine, I’m going let it shine”. We have heard sermons about being a light unto the world, living our faith out loud. There may even be books about this topic of the candle and hiding our light under a bowl. But here Jesus make reference to our eyes being the windows of our soul. It is not that our eyes being good make the whole body full or light, yet that is true. When we keep our eyes upon Jesus, who is the light, all that he is shines into our very being influencing our personality, our continence, or demeanor, our attitudes about life, about people, about every aspect of our being. However, if we spend our time looking at the world, the things of the world, with lust, desires, wanting, pursuing after them with our eyes, then our very being will be influenced in the same way. Our personality, our continence, or demeanor, our attitudes about life and people. It will lead us to envy, jealously, even hatred. We need to keep our eyes upon Jesus, we need to look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of his glory and grace. Although it is generally thought that the Apostle Paul wrote the letter to the Hebrews and he wrote it in Hebrew with Luke latter translating it into Greek, the idea of fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith is in that letter. We need to see that whatever we focus our eyes upon that is the direction our mind and then our body will go. If our desire is that people see Jesus when they look at us, then we need to fix our eyes upon him. We can tell a lot about a person by looking into their eyes. People can tell a lot about us by looking into our eyes. What do they see? The eyes are the windows into our soul, they reflect that which is within. That which is within is a result of what the eyes are seeing. It is sort of an action and reaction event. If we focus on the world, the darkness, then darkness is in our eyes as well and no one will be about to see the light within us, if in fact, it is even there. We need to make sure our eyes remain focused on Jesus, and allow his light to permeate our whole being, so that we are all light within and then that light will shine outward upon others through the windows of our soul.