Short-sightedness

Scripture

Matthew 16:23 “Jesus turned to Peter and said “Get away from me Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view and not from God’s”.

 

Observation

Peter had just completed a wonderful conversation with Jesus where he declared that Jesus was the promised Messiah. Then this conversation takes place and Jesus is rebuking him for his short-sightedness. Poor Peter! But through this conversation Jesus made it clear that we can have a human point of view or a kingdom point of view. The human point of view seeks to preserve itself through self protection, insulation from predators, and attack or be attacked strategies. Whereas kingdom thinking goes beyond the human life we live here and now and looks at the cause and effect well into the future – in fact into life beyond this one. Jesus’ rebuke to Peter is centred on Peters short sighted view of life and opens up a view of Gods perspective of the events unfolding on that day. Look beyond the things that you see happening Peter, Jesus is saying and see the eternal ramifications of what today’s events are going to achieve.

 

Application

Having a human view of life is my default and that is a totally normal position for me to have – because I’m human! But when I accepted Jesus into my life and I became a citizen of heaven through the redemptive process of salvation, I am now expected to begin to think differently. Human but a citizen of heaven, earth bound but eternally focused. My short sightedness needs to be surgically fixed by the Holy Spirit. When things happen throughout my day I need to understand the kingdom cause and effect that is being played out and not default back to my human short sighted view. I could be very easily making human based decisions and statements that require rebuking from the Holy Spirit today because they aren’t conducive to the standards and focus of the heavenly kingdom I now represent.

 

Prayer

Lord Jesus please help me to continually be lifting my eyes toward you and seeing your perspective of the situations I interact with each day. Help me to submit to the searching of Holy Spirit as he heals me of my short sightedness and gives me new sight to see beyond here and now and to view all from Gods view point.

 

Jim Jung