When you look through a monocular, or what I remember in movies as an old-fashioned  “spyglass” that pirates used to use, you look at a particular place. While you peer through, you cannot see the entire field of vision, only the space around the focal point you’re looking at. What does this create? A partial view of your surroundings or tunnel vision!

When you’re up against a problem, we have a tendency as humans to only look at the thing that is disturbing or harassing us. We fixate on it really. We worry about it, lose sleep over it, and otherwise just keep looking at it over and over. What is it we think will happen by looking at it and only it? We want, more than anything, for it to just go away.

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” John 10:10.

This scripture is a good reminder of the nature of our walk with our Lord, one we tend to focus only on the beginning, forgetting the promise made at the end of the verse! The enemy of our souls is here, in this world, and he brings suffering and negative into our lives. But. God is also with us and He’s always working for us, helping us to live well in a hostile surrounding.

“Oh that mean old devil messed up my life because he means to steal my blessing!” Or how about, “I can’t believe I’ve been having all these awful headaches; I’ve been prayed over for healing, but they’re still hurting me!” Or perhaps, “we’re in financial messes because of the enemy!”

I think we’ve all been guilty of such statements, concentrating only on the dilemma at hand, that thing we’re focusing on that is causing us so much angst. But the truth of the matter is that if we would but shift our spyglass upwards, we might begin to “see” in the ways our Lord has intended.

Let’s look once again at the scripture.“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” John 10:10. Our tunnel vision tends to look at part a of this scripture; God’s intention is that we might look at part b!

“I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” Are you a follower of Jesus? Have you invited Him into your heart as your Lord and Savior? If yes, then this promise applies to you! He came so we might have abundant life!

As we fumble around with only seeing the narrow view of our predicament, He sits in heaven, longing for us to shift our sight to the heavens. He always has the solution to our situation, for He knows the end from the beginning. The solution may be sitting right there in plain view but the problem is we’re not even looking for it because we aren’t looking to Him!

I am guilty of fixating on the problem. So what’s wrong with that picture? As I focus only on the problem, the negative thing occurring in my life and not looking around for His solutions, I miss His answer. Oh, so much time wasted!

This tunnel vision of mine is a trait I’m currently asking Papa God to help me with. I’ve learned, through hindsight, to see His provisions every single time I have a problem. I am now, finally, learning to not react to the problems that present in my life. I’m learning to say to myself when the next thing shows itself, “don’t react! Don’t react!”

Instead, I try to take a deep breath, pick up the monocular, and take another look, this time upward to see if I can identify His solution waiting there for me to discover. And as is so true of our loving Father, when I then shift focus back down onto my problem, I suddenly see the solution…right there in front of my eyes!

As growing Christians in a hostile world, it is important for us to remember that God has our back…always! And, according to John 10:10 above, He promises us that in the end, our problems are going to be turned to our good, full of abundant life. What is abundant life?

Webster’s defines abundant as: plentiful; in great quantity; fully sufficient; as an abundant supply. In scripture, abounding; having in great quantity; overflowing with. We might tend to look at “abundant” in the verse as, “oh, that’s nice.” Abundant in the original Greek is the word perissos. It means: Super-abundant! Superior! Beyond abundant! This is no small promise.

I invite you to attempt to turn over a new leaf with me. Instead of looking at life and its problems as a tunnel-visioned, “oh no, here we go again!”, let’s try to focus on the One, looking for His promise and provision. Put down the monocular, stop looking at the problem, and instead, look for His provision in the bigger picture.

Lord, help us to see this life through Your eyes. Yes, there are problems we face but there is no problem bigger than you, Lord! I pray blessings over my brothers and sisters reading here today and I pray your heavenly provisions of abundance will pop into our line of sight in brand new ways.

I’d love to hear your comments as you attempt to see things clearly now!