Spiritual Blindness

If you are a follower of Christ, allow me start this post by asking you a few questions. Aren’t you glad you are a Christian? Isn’t it a
blessing to have a personal relationship with Almighty God through His Son Jesus? Can anything in this world compare to the comfort and presence of the Holy Spirit in your life? Do you long for the time when you will be
able to be in His presence for eternity, in a place where there is no more sorrow, pain, sickness, and death?

The answers are obvious.

There is nothing that can compare with the joy, peace, comfort and
security of knowing Christ!

Why then, isn’t EVERYONE a follower of Christ? Why wouldn’t others want to know the
satisfaction of a life in Him – life abundant – life eternal?

Have you ever asked those questions? I have. It seems incomprehensible that anyone would forego the myriad blessings of being a recipient of Grace so amazing.
And yet they do. Hundreds, and thousands, and millions of our family members, friends, and fellow human beings are living empty lives of spiritual darkness, and most do not even realize it!

Paul the Apostle explains this phenomenon in his second letter to the church at Corinth. In
chapter 4 verses 3-4 “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them
from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of
God… “ (ESV)

The answer is simple. “The god of this world” (Satan) has blinded the minds of unbelievers. He has placed spiritual cataracts on the eyes of those who are lost, to the point that they cannot see the simple truth of the Good News of Jesus Christ. He uses the things of this world to accomplish this. “For all that is in the world--the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions--is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires “(1 Jn 2:16-17a, ESV)

Sadly, as the Apostle John writes here, the world and all of its desires are only temporal. The things of God are what have lasting value. These are the treasures that God wants for every person to possess!

There is only one remedy for spiritual blindness - laser surgery by the Great Physician!
Paul explains the cure in 2 Cor. 4:4-6 “…the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (ESV)

As believers, we must understand that we cannot expect our lost loved ones to “want to be part of our church”. We cannot force them to be able to see their spiritual need, apart from the convicting work of the Holy Spirit in their lives. Sometimes, we try to do the convicting, and that is not God’s plan. He can handle that work on His own.

Our responsibility is to share the Gospel, and to live a transparent life that reveals Christ. True, we are flawed creatures. We do not amount to much on our own, but we do have a tremendous resource available, “We have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.” (v. 7)

What then, can we do?

We can pray for our loved ones.

We can pray for all the lost souls who are out there. There is a void in each of their lives that
can only be filled by a relationship with God, Himself. Don’t be discouraged if they have not come to the light just yet. Keep them in your prayers, and keep sharing Christ (and Christ alone) and keep trusting God to do the miracle in their lives that He has done in yours.

Here is His promise: “But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of
glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. Therefore, having this ministry by the mercyof God, we do not lose heart…” (2 Cor 3:16 - 4:1 ESV)