Momentum: Pursuing God’s Blessings Through The BeatitudesSample

Put These Glasses On

"The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes." Psalm 19:8

Spiritual mourning begins with seeing your sins. We only mourn over sins we actually see, and by nature we don’t see well. We don’t see ourselves as others see us, let alone as God sees us.

Reading the Bible is like putting on a pair of glasses. You begin to see what God sees. You get to know what grieves and offends him. Reading the Bible will open your eyes to the sins that lurk in your life.

How does reading the Bible open your eyes to see the sins you must avoid? Look, for example, at 1 Corinthians 13: “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth” (1 Corinthians 13:4-6).

These two verses draw attention to at least seven sins that grieve the Spirit of God: (1) Impatience – love is patient, (2) Envy – love does not envy, (3) Pride – love is not arrogant, (4) Rudeness – love is not rude, (5) Insisting on your own way – love is not self-seeking, (6) Short-tempered – love isn’t irritable; it’s not easily provoked, and (7) Resentment – love doesn’t cling to past hurts. These are offensive to God. They grieve the Holy Spirit, ruin character, and contradict the way of Christ.

God’s Word will open your eyes to what God calls sin. Leave your Bible closed and your eyes will remain closed. Open your Bible and God will open your eyes.

For further reading, see 1 Corinthians 13:4-6