“Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.” Psalm 119:18 (Read Psalm 119:17-24)

Unless the LORD God opens our eyes and gives us understanding, His Word, the Bible, remains a closed book to us.

Oh, we may learn many things from the Bible and even know the historical events it records. However, its central message will remain veiled and hidden from our sight (2 Corinthians 3:14-16). Without the enlightening of the Holy Spirit, we will not come to see our sinfulness as God sees it; nor will we come to know of His grace and mercy in Jesus Christ.

Jesus spoke of this when He quoted from Isaiah 6 in regard to the people of His day (Matthew 13:14-15): “By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.”

Jesus also said, “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life … And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father” (John 6:63,65).

Unless the LORD opens your eyes, you too will miss the life-giving message of the Bible. But, when the LORD opens our eyes to see and understand our sinfulness and rebellion against the LORD, and when He reveals to us the glorious salvation He has provided in His Son, Jesus Christ, we will truly see wondrous things in His Word!

O Spirit of the living God, open our eyes that we may see and understand the message of Your life-giving Word, repent of our sinful ways and trust in Jesus Christ and His innocent sufferings and death for our eternal salvation. In His name, we pray. Amen.

[Scripture quotations from the King James Version of the Bible]