Filled with Light
“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!”
Matthew 6:22-23
We have to be careful what we look at to keep our eyes healthy, otherwise the Light within us will become darkness. What we look at in books, on the internet, on television, or on the street can cause our minds to drift into sin and the Light within us to become darkness. We can also visually see in our imaginations causing our mind to drift into darkness.
If your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it from you. It is better for you to enter life with one eye, than to have two eyes and be cast into the fiery hell. (Matthew 18:9 NASB) These are the words of Jesus indicating the importance of not stumbling by what we choose to see. We don’t literally pluck out our eye, but we must control what we choose to see and what we choose to imagine.
I will not look with approval on anything that is vile. I hate what faithless people do; I will have no part in it. (Psalm 101:3) These are the words David said to the Lord because he knew what he looked at could cause to sin. For example, as recorded in 2 Samuel 11-12, when David watched Bathsheba, it led to sin that affected the rest of his life. We need to do the same as David and identify any vile thing we look at or imagine and pray for the Lord’s power to make our hearts pure.
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:5) This is a very important scripture because everything we do starts with a thought. If we capture our thoughts, we can control what we see and what we imagine. If we don’t capture every tempting thought, then our thoughts will be governed by the flesh.
The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. (Romans 8:6) Capturing every thought to the obedience of Christ is being governed by the Spirit. We must control our thoughts in order to control our eyes and imaginations. Then, we will be filled with Light and avoid darkness.
Today, be careful what you see and what you imagine in order to be pleasing to our Lord. Don’t let your thoughts drift into sinful imaginations and drive your eyes into darkness. Seek to always be filled with the Light of Christ.
Prayer: Lord, keep me filled with light, and never filled with darkness. Help me to capture every thought to obedience of Christ. In Jesus’ name, Amen.