What do you see when you look around you—in yourself, your circumstances and in other people around you? What do you see when you open God’s Word?

Is it maybe your shortcomings, all the measures you do not live up to, all the demands that your loved ones and life places on you and which you do not fulfil?

You are not alone.

We all face challenges on a daily basis and our outlook can make or break us but there is one option we all have, but it is our choice whether we will open our eyes to it or not.

Psalm 119:18 gives us that answer: “Open my eyes, that I may see the Wondrous things from Your law.” (NKJV)

During the Old Testament, God’s people had to (or should I rather say, tried to) keep the law (the Torah), but they failed to do so. The only Person that was able to keep the law was Jesus. Today, we no longer live under the law of the Old Testament, but under Jesus’ Gospel of Grace in the New Testament and it is different.

We are no longer required to keep the law, because Jesus came and fulfilled the law and every demand it may have (Matthew 5:17). We are to walk in His grace for our salvation and love one another as He loves us (Matthew 22:37-39). No one could ever fulfil the law except Jesus and since Jesus did that, when we see a reference to the law in the Old Testament and the demands of obedience it places on us, we can have joy knowing that Jesus already fulfilled every law and we can walk in the fruits which His obedience obtained for us on the cross. All the blessings of Deuteronomy 28 are ours because of Jesus’ obedience.

Our best efforts cannot measure up to the standards God has for us, but when we turn our efforts towards Jesus and seek Him and trust in Him to sustain us, we will be enabled to do things and see things we would have missed otherwise. The decision lies with you? Do you want to see Jesus in everything you do and see?

The extent to which you ask Jesus to reveal Himself to you is the extent to which He will do so. Jesus does not want to conceal Himself from you but reveal every piece about Him in the Old and New Testament, through every symbol, example or picture there is of Him in His Word, in everything that happens around you and especially within you by His Holy Spirit that dwells in you and operates through you.

Having said that, I am going to ask you again, “What do you see when you look around you and when you study God’s Word? Do you see Jesus?

You can.

If your heart’s desire is to see more of Jesus, pray as much as you need to: “Lord, open my eyes so that I may see the wondrous things of You—in Your Word, in me, in everything around me and in everyone I encounter. Amen.”

Maretha Retief