“Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your 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 Cor. 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, in Matthew 13:14-15, when He quoted from Isaiah 6 in regard to the people of His day: “Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive; for the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them.”

Jesus also said, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. … Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by 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 the atoning sacrifice of 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 the name of our crucified and risen Savior, we pray. Amen.

[Scripture is taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.]