“Three things I pray/To see thee more clearly/Love thee more dearly/Follow thee more nearly/Day by day.” Stephen Schwartz

“Open the eyes of my heart, Lord.” This is best illustrated in 2 Kings 6. Elisha the Prophet was giving military intelligence to Israel’s king through words fed to him by God.

This intel ticked off the King of Syria, who sent his army to capture Elisha. One morning, Elisha’s servant sees his massive army surrounding the city that terrified him.

Elisha tells his servant to relax and then asked the LORD to open his eyes to see what he couldn’t see at the moment – God’s army of chariots of fire! The servant couldn’t see this army before; and thus, was afraid of what he could see – the massive Syrian army.

Feelings of fear were reversed through added information/truth. This is the point of Jeremiah 33:3, “Call to Me and I will answer you and tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.” (ESV)

As followers of Christ, what we see at times can cause us to be fearful, which can paralyze us at best or cause us to retreat at worse. Yet, this feeling can be reversed with specific information the Lord can give…if only we’d ask.

God told Jeremiah to ask for information he needed to act upon by faith to stand strong in the midst of what he was seeing – prison walls!

Emotions make us human. They are real. But, sometimes they are based on lies or a lack information. Truth must rule our lives more and more and emotions less and less.  

The servant saw a massive army and became fearful. What did he need? Specific truth to combat what he wasn’t seeing – God’s army.

We must apply Jeremiah 33:3 when our emotions/feelings seem to be overtaking our lives by praying, “Lord, open the eyes of my heart to see the truth I need to combat the feelings/situation I’m currently facing in order to draw closer to You.”