Six Ways to Open Your Eyes to the World Around You

It’s a new week. Why not seize the divine opportunities God will place in front of you and make an eternal impact? Here are six practical ways to open your spiritual eyes to the world around you:

1. Stop condemning the world to hell. Choose to hope. Stop watching the news if you need to. Stop listening to talk radio if you need to. Choose to hope. Choose to believe that God can still do big things today.

2.  Start each day by telling God you want to serve Him today. As simple as it seems, before you leave the house each morning, intentionally tell God that you want to serve him today. God’s always up to something in your life. Tell him you’re ready to partner with him to change lives, and watch what he does.

3. Build enough margin in your life to take advantage of the opportunities you’re given. Many times we overschedule our lives so much that we don’t have any opportunity to join God when he gives us an opportunity. Many of the best opportunities we’ll have will be ones we don’t expect. But if we don’t have margins, then opportunities look like interruptions and we decide we don’t have time.

4. Look at people from God’s perspective. When the disciples saw the Samaritan woman (John 4), they couldn’t see past her gender and her race. Jesus saw her as her Heavenly Father saw her: a precious soul that needed salvation. If we want to be open to what God wants to use us, I guarantee you will eventually step across social and racial barriers. If you can’t see past someone’s gender, race, socio-economic status or past mistakes, then you’ll miss the opportunity God has for you.

5. Listen to the nudging of the Holy Spirit. Jesus was always in tune with the Holy Spirit, so he knew when someone was ready for salvation. I know this sounds a bit mystical. How will you know when the Holy Spirit is nudging you? You’ll just know. You really will. He’ll make himself plain to you. In the book of John, Jesus is using the illustration of sheep and a shepherd. He’s the shepherd, we’re the sheep. He says, “My sheep know my voice.” If you’re a follower of Jesus, you’ll know when he’s speaking to you through the Holy Spirit.

6. Do something. Say something. Ultimately, seeing a world that’s winnable isn’t just so we can be aware of it. It’s so that we can do something about it. When the Holy Spirit tells you to do something or say something, do it; say it. And watch God do incredible things.

image courtesy of: artofnightsky.deviantart.com