“Your eye is like a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is filled with light. But when your eye is unhealthy, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is!
Matthew 6:22-33

Dear God, I looked at a couple of translations of this passage this morning because I wanted to make sure I was reading it right. This translation above is from the New Living Translation. It is what I read first, but I actually think I like it the best. It basically says, to me, that what I take into my body through my eyes (I would add through my ears as well) will color my entire being. If I take in hate, fear, lustful things, greed, gluttony, etc. then my being will be colored by those things. If the shows I watch, the podcasts I listen to, the music I listen to, the news I consume is filled with these things then I cannot help but be tainted by them. I wonder what the things people took in through their eyes to which Jesus was referring here were like 2,000 years ago. What kinds of things did they consume?

So what does a life look like that is dedicated to only allowing light into my body. Sadly, I cannot use my own life as an example because, while I let a lot of your light in during the day, it’s not exclusively your light. It’s not all about you. I listen to some secular music. I watch some secular movies that include violence, sex that does not reflect your intent, hate, prejudice, covetousness, etc. I don’t consume too much news, so I have that going for me.

Father, a good first step would probably be that I would allow more light in that darkness. At the end of each day, it would be nice if I could look back and see that I saw and heard things that reflected your majesty, glory, and light than I looked at things of the world. So help me to do that. Help me to let your light in today. Do it all for my good and your glory.

I pray in your name, the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit,

Amen