“If you see that the church is struggling financially but you still refuse to give, it means you are spiritually blind!”
I paused.
Is that really what the Bible means by spiritual blindness?
Giving is certainly an important part of the life of a disciple of Christ. Yet spiritual blindness seems to go much deeper than whether someone gives money or not.
The Journey of “Seeing” in John 9
I remembered the story of the man born blind in John 9.
At the beginning of the story, his eyes truly could not see. But interestingly, after Jesus opened his physical eyes, his journey of “seeing” was not yet complete.
At first, he knew Him only as “the man they call Jesus.”
Then he said, “He is a prophet.”
After enduring pressure and interrogation from the religious leaders, his understanding grew clearer: he recognized that Jesus came from God.
Finally, Jesus Himself came to meet him.
When he understood who was standing before him, he said:
“Lord, I believe.”
Then he worshiped Him.
That is where I began to understand something.
Open spiritual eyes do not merely see circumstances.
Open spiritual eyes begin to recognize the Lord in the midst of those circumstances.
A Question over Breakfast
This morning, the Lord seemed to give me a small lesson about that.
My wife and I were talking over breakfast.
I asked,
“Why does God allow people who follow Him to keep experiencing ups and downs? There are seasons of rising and seasons of falling. There is joy, but there are also difficulties.”
My wife’s answer was very simple:
“If life were always easy, perhaps we would forget God. Even when life is difficult, we sometimes still forget our quiet time and prayer.”
Hahaha.
She had a point.
The conversation ended. I took a shower and went up to the third floor for my quiet time.
I opened that morning’s Daily Bread reading.
The passage that greeted me was Deuteronomy 8:2–3.
An Answer from the Wilderness
Israel was commanded to remember how the Lord had led them through the wilderness for forty years.
God allowed them to become hungry.
Why?
To humble them.
To test them.
To reveal what was truly in their hearts.
Then God gave them manna so that they would learn:
“Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.”
— Deuteronomy 8:3
I smiled.
Only a few minutes earlier, I had asked,
“Lord, why does life with You still have its ups and downs?”
That morning, the Word seemed to answer me:
Because sometimes the wilderness reveals what remains unseen when life is comfortable.
Difficulty can expose pride that is still hidden.
Hunger can reveal what we truly depend on.
Lack can teach us that, all along, we believed we could live by our own strength.
That is where God humbles us—not to destroy us, but to teach us to depend on Him.
Not only for bread that feeds the body,
but also for the Bread from heaven that gives life to the soul.
When the Word Illuminates Our Experience
Was the verse that appeared that morning a “coincidence”?
Someone might call it that.
But faith teaches me not to walk too quickly past moments like these.
Faith makes me stop and say:
“Lord, are You speaking to me?”
When His Word illuminates our experience, we begin to see something we did not see before.
The circumstances may be the same.
The problem may not have changed.
The wilderness may still be there.
But our eyes begin to open.
We begin to see that, in the midst of it all, God has not abandoned us.
He is teaching.
He is shaping us.
He is revealing our hearts.
He is teaching us to depend on Him.
Perhaps this is one simple expression of spiritual eyes beginning to open:
not seeing something that is not there,
but beginning to recognize the God who has been there and at work all along.
Have a blessed day, family of Christ.
May our eyes be opened—not merely to see His blessings, but to recognize Him.