Seeing Ourselves and Others Through God's Eyes

"Love one another with brotherly affection.

Outdo one another in showing honor."

Romans 12:10

Whether you have 20/20 eyesight or not, each of us is born desperate for vision surgery from the Great Physician – for the Holy Spirit to enter into our lives and radically transform the viewpoint from which the eyes of our hearts see life.

Our struggle in life is that we are all born with eyes that are constantly turned inward – we are, by nature, concerned primarily with how we are affected by what is going around us. Our default is not to seek to understand how something might be impacting others, but rather to compulsively see only how we are treated. We are, quite simply, self-obsessed.

Instead of being “me-focused,” Christ calls us to be “others-focused.” Instead of being self-obsessed, Christ calls us to be self-forgetful. And what He calls us to, He will empower us for. His Holy Spirit alone can perform such monumental paradigm shift in our thinking – sometimes in big, dramatic ways, but often in small steps as He, little by little, adjusts our lenses to see and honor others above ourselves. It is how our King lived as He walked this earth, and as His followers, we are being made like Him, “being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corin. 3:18).

When we allow the Holy Spirit to do His work in our hearts, when we ask Him for eyes to see ourselves and others the way He sees us, we begin to walk in unspeakable freedom! Suddenly, as His Gospel washes afresh over us, we're reminded that, because Jesus paid the price for our sins, we are justified before God and set free from the pressure to perform perfectly in this life to gain His acceptance (which we never could!). His Spirit reminds us that, because Christ is our Savior, we are beautifully clothed in His righteousness and forever declared “good enough” by the only One Whose opinion of us really matters! We are free then to take our eyes off ourselves, free to stop trying to make sure nobody shakes our fragile false sense of self-worth – and instead we can open our eyes to those around us, seeing their needs and joyfully seeking to meet them, trusting that our Savior has and will continue to meet all of ours.

Our love, devotion and service to others is genuine when it comes from a Holy Spirit-inspired place of gratitude for all that Christ has done for us. May we daily seek to see ourselves and others through His eyes so we can spend our time walking in true brotherly love for one another!