The Sunday Mail
AS always I would like to start this article by thanking all of you who take the time to go through our articles. It is really humbling to know that there is someone who is following the column. We pray you are blessed by the articles.
Pastor Tinashe Zinyemba
Last week we talked about “youthful lusts” deduced from 2Timothy 2vs22 where Paul says to his son Timothy, “Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.”
We defined lust as a craving, a hunger, thirst, an appetite or great desire, an unlawful desire a yearning/craving for something forbidden. In 1 John2 vs 16 the apostle talks about three types of lusts. However, today we will focus on one of them which is “the lust of the eyes”.
I heard someone say the eyes are the windows to the world, while another said the eyes are the windows of the soul. Besides allowing us to see the world and experience the many beautiful features and expressions of God’s creativity, the eye is key to vision and perception.
It literally affects how our life turns out. For example Jesus said if a man looks lustfully at a woman even though he has not touched her simply because of the lust he has actually had sexual intercourse with her. That is pretty deep hey.
The eye if not disciplined will cause you to desire things that can destroy your life forever. Many young people are being led astray because of what they see.
For example it is sad to know that many young ladies are giving sexual favours to men in order to get money or buy clothes to keep up with the latest fashion trends. Or to be seen by their friends with a particular type of man.
It is sad to note that even young men are now also doing the same with older women for the same reason that is financial and physical benefit. Some do it just so that their friends see them in a particular way.
Others end up stealing in order to portray a particular image. In Genesis 21 Lot’s wife was turned into a pillar of salt simply because she could not stop herself from looking back at Sodom and Gomorrah. Some things are really not worth you looking into as they can forever mark your life.
In Numbers 13 Moses sent out twelve spies, to spy out the promised land. Ten of them came back with a negative report while two believed that the land was ready for the taking. The ten saw giants and death yet Caleb and Joshua saw opportunity and blessing. Because of their unbelief God declared that everyone who was forty years and above would not enter into the land of promise except for Caleb and Joshua.
Even how you see yourself and the world around you is very important, because how you see determines whether you live or die. What do you see around you? Do you just see evil? Corruption? Death? Hopelessness? Despair? Sometimes these viewpoints can become so toxic.
This can also be classified as lustful behaviour as for some strange reason the eye will be drawn to see only that, and nothing else. If that is all that you see trust me that is all that you will become.
And you will banish yourself into a jail of despair. Our Lord Jesus said in Matthew 6vs22-23, “The light of the body is the eye: If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness…”
In Judges 6 we find a young man called Gideon, an angel appears to him and calls him a “mighty man of valour”, he had never seen himself in that way before and he doubted what the angel was saying and had to get a series of confirmations from God that he was a chosen man.
When he began to see himself as God saw him, he was mightily used by God to deliver Israel in a miraculous way.
How do you see yourself? Is the self-image that you have of yourself correct? Do you see yourself as God sees you? See yourself as God sees you.
Jesus said in Matthew 18vs9, “And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell.” What is causing you to have such a bad and ungodly view of life and yourself ? Is it pornography? Is it your friends? Are there programmes on television,is it the internet?
How you see and what you see determines where you go in life and the decisions that you make.
Eve got us all into trouble because of her lustful desire for the fruit in the garden of Eden. Throw away and burn those magazines and books if need be. Go off social media for a while if need be. If you are not happy with how you look, start exercising, change your friends, change what you are watching or reading. Do everything you can to change how you see. Your life depends on it. How you see and what you see determines where you go in life and the decisions that you make.
That’s all for now. Till next week, God bless.
Tinashe Zinyemba is a pastor with New Life Covenant Church. Email feedback at [email protected]
