Wednesday Wanderings is time we set aside to wander in the Presence of Jesus and ponder His truths. When you are ready, prepare your mind, body, and soul to have a transformational encounter with Jesus.
Watch the Wednesday Wanderings Welcome for this week.
Now that we have cleared our minds of the clutter, we can wander on the journey with our Holy Jesus.
PREPARATION: In our last Wandering with Dr. Sherri, we reviewed how to Crown Christ in the Crisis. This week we will consider our Wondering Eyes. When you are ready, you may begin the dialogue with Jesus and state: “Jesus, I invite you to help me to leisurely wander into your Presence. Prepare my heart to receive, and illuminate my spiritual senses to encounter you.”
PROMISE: Matthew 6:22-23 “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!”
PARABLE: I definitely do not think this is what Jesus had in mind when He taught that one eyes are lamps to our bodies! What He was teaching was the our eyes allow things into us that influence who we are and what ultimately comes out of us. We are going to look at a bit of juxtaposition of the two words, wondering and wandering as prompted by the hymn text for the day and the meandering with Jesus we hope to do together here.
The angels are described to have wondering eyes. They are overcome with the scars of the Savior as we will see below. That left them overwhelmed and in awe of His sacrifice. Those are the kinds of eyes we need. Eyes that flood our souls with the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. [2 Corinthians 4:6]
The kind of eyes we do not need are wandering eyes. This describes eyes that end up looking at things or in places that generally create trouble for us. Wandering eyes are more prone to invite darkness in, rather than light, or so the phrase normally goes as it refers to someone in a relationship who has eyes that wander away toward someone other than the person with whom they are in relationship.
PSALM: Crown Him with Many Crowns
by Matthew Bridges,(1851), v. 3 by Godfrey Thring, pub.1874
Crown Him the Lord of love!
Behold His hands and side—
Rich wounds, yet visible above,
In beauty glorified.
No angel in the sky
Can fully bear that sight,
But downward bends His wond’ring eye
At mysteries so bright.
Thring proclaims he will crown Christ as Lord of love. We could learn from the angels who bend their wondering eyes downward. Seeing Jesus and His love rightly help us to fill our souls with the light of this transforming truth. We must cultivate wondering eyes. But how do we do that?
PONDER and WANDER: If you choose, Ponder the question: How can I develop wondering eyes?
Trying to formulate this answer makes me think about the difference between different kinds of meditation, in the simplest form. While some forms focus on emptying our minds, which can be a very dangerous practice, I believe Christian meditation is a filling of the mind with the ways and will of God, by way of His Word in particular and His Spirit in general.
What does this mean practically? In this context I believe it means asking God to reveal to the eyes of our souls Himself, His purposes and His ways. Start with Scripture and use that as a solid foundation for creating God a context to speak to you. We could return to our Scripture above and use it as framework for prayer asking God to fill our eyes and our souls with His light, as in the exercise below.
Soul care training exercise: If you choose, complete this week’s soul training exercise and consider taking time to let the B.R.I.G.H.T. mystery of God to flood your soul as you seek to develop wondering eyes.
- When you are ready, clear your mind and invite the Holy Spirit to Begin by helping you center in on God a passage of God’s word. We will use Matthew 6:22-23 for this exercise.
- Next, Read the passage and ask the Holy Spirit to make it come alive for you.
- Then, begin to pray the Scripture. Inject yourself into the passage by personalizing it. For example, “Lord I confess my eye is the lamp of my body. Make my eye is healthy, so my whole body will be full of light. Keep my eye from looking at things that are bad, so my whole body will not be full of darkness. May the light in my body be the light of your glory, so as to escape the darkness of this world!”
- Give the Holy Spirit time to speak to you as you wait quietly, silently before the Lord.
- Hold your soul before God and ask Him to reveal any darkness, then be quick to confess it and determine to welcome light in its place.
- Lastly, Thank God for the light of His Word and His presence, and the forgiveness and mercy that allow you to walk in them.
PRAYER: Lord of love, I bless you for the light of Your glorious sacrifice for me. You will ever bear the scars that purchased it for me, and want to always be quick to give you praise for doing so. Fill my soul with the B.R.I.G.H.T. mystery of Your incredible love for me. In the wonderful name of Jesus I pray, Amen.
PRAISE: Now that you have emptied your mind of the clutter and wandered with Jesus, take a closing moment to crown Jesus with your praise. Let the work of your wandering fill you with the love of Christ.
Then take the mindfulness of God’s presence cultivated in these last few minutes of wandering into the next ones and beyond.
Until next time, be Resonant.
The post Do Your Eyes Wonder or Wander? appeared first on Resonant 7.
Image Attributions
Eye is a Lamp – https://www.pinterest.com/pin/282741682826220610/
Downward Bend – https://pixabay.com/illustrations/fantasy-angel-mystical-wing-magic-4122152/
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