Proverbs 21:2 - All a person’s ways seem right to him, but the Lord weighs hearts.
One day my wife and I were at a restaurant looking over the menu. She noticed that I was
moving my menu closer and then away from me, trying to get everything into focus. She asked me if I needed to get my eyes checked. I told her, “No…they just use smaller fonts on the menus these days…I guess to save space.” Well I think she was skeptical of my answer because the next day she made an appointment for me at the optometrist. Not long afterwards, I had a new pair of glasses.
A few weeks later my wife and I returned to that same restaurant. While looking over the menu, I told her, “Well it looks like they finally got the right font size for their menu. I wondered how long it would take them to get it right.” She just glared at me and shook her head. The problem wasn’t with the restaurant or their menu (which had not changed since our first visit). The problem was with my vision. But the main problem was with me; my unwillingness to address the real issue: I didn’t want to get take the time to get my vision checked. I was willing to live with blurred vision. I had actually grown accustomed to it. So when I was challenged by the menu (and my wife), I denied facts right in front of me.
Oftentimes, we develop “blurred vision” in our assessments in the issues of life. We say things like:
● They need to get their act together. If they did, we wouldn’t have these problems.
● I don’t know why they have that attitude towards me.
● I did my part. If it fails, it will be because of them.
● I told the truth…just not all of it.
● I don’t have a problem; they do.
We have a natural tendency to intentionally deflect blame from ourselves on to someone or
something else. Jeremiah 17:9 – 10 tells us that our hearts are deceitful. We have the ability to convince ourselves of anything. Children have a natural tendency to lie, omit the truth and divert blame to avoid unpleasant consequences. Adults do the same.
But God can’t be fooled, lied to or deceived. He knows what’s in our hearts…the part that no one sees. We may say or do things that on the surface may seem good to other people, but God sees our thoughts and true inclinations of our hearts. In short, He sees everything…clearly.
God wants you to have clear vision as you walk before Him through life, in honesty. And if
necessary, He can cause the events of life to “correct your vision”. With a clearer vision, you
can walk the way of wisdom, so that “…when you walk, your step will not be hampered, and if you run, you will not stumble.” (Proverbs 4:11-13). Have you gotten used to “blurred vision” in an area of your life?