Pray Network Forum

My eyesight is not as good as it once was. And that affects many things in my life. Astigmatism has distorted my vision since I was a boy, and cataracts do no help. In Matthew 6 Jesus compared eyesight with spiritual vision.

Matthew 6:22,23

“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

Let me point out a few distortions that plunge us into spiritual darkness.

Worldly Eyes

If your focus is only on this world, even for your church or your ministry, you have been blinded to ultimate reality. Many people do this deliberately. Others of us are simply distracted by the worries and desires of this life. If you live as though this life is all there is, all meaning is reduced or eradicated. Your body becomes your soul, and time becomes eternity, the church becomes a club, and life becomes meaningless.

Lustful Eyes

Do you look at others with lust in your heart? Lust distorts people into fleeting pleasures. This shallow vision is soon reinforced by glandular drives. However, lust can be broader than physical desire. The word translated lust in the original language of the New Testament is also used to translate covetousness. If your vision is distorted by anything that you want, you will never be able to understand why things do not satisfy. In Luke 12:15 Jesus warned us to be on our guard against all kinds of covetousness. We have to watch out for it because we seldom recognize it in our own lives. When you cannot even see that you are blind, how deep that darkness is indeed.

Prideful Eyes

These are eyes that see everything in the light of yourself. Pride does not just see yourself as better than others. It pushes you to claim the most prominent position. Pride studies, not to learn, but to impress. Pride dresses, not comfort, or even beauty, but for success. Pride looks at a home or a car as a means of intimidating others. Pride is blind to anything and anyone beyond yourself.

Selfish Eyes

The previous two eye problems are self-centered. But I think we need to see selfishness as a separate category. First, it is always in competition for what you want. Selfishness sees love as a means of personal fulfillment rather than commitment. It treats other people as means to its own ends. And also because it tends to self-pity, this malady turns everything into resentment. It often seeks friends, marriage partners and sometimes even counselors who will reinforce your resentments.

But what can you do about spiritual blindness? In one of my books a doctor tells about a patient who got a thorn in his eye. (In The Wilderness, https://www.amazon.com/WILDERNESS-David-Young-ebook/dp/B00BLNMUIA/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1539279887&sr=8-3 ) He pointed out that the natural defence mechanism in humans kept him from removing the thorn. That is also true of our spiritual blindness. We need God in His tender care to correct our diseased eyesight. To some extent our perspective is transformed at our conversion. “All things become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17) But God also puts us through a process of therapy to enable us to see more and more as He sees. And ultimately, we will see as clearly as we ourselves are seen by God. (2 Corinthians 13:12)

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Twice, in Luke 22:39-46, Jesus instructs his disciples to pray that they would not fall into temptation. 

³⁹ Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. ⁴⁰ On reaching the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.” ⁴¹ He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, ⁴² “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” ⁴³ An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. ⁴⁴ And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground^.

⁴⁵ When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. ⁴⁶ “Why are you sleeping?” he asked them. “Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.”

Turning our focus on God, zeroing in on Him, His Word, and the ministry of His Holy Spirit, helps fill our focus and attention with the One who is greater than all; the One who sent His only Son as a perfect, unblemished, sacrifice for all mankind- that fully and permanently defeated sin, death, and the devil- after being tempted in every way as we are.


Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— ¹⁵ and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. ¹⁶ For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. ¹⁷ For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. ¹⁸ Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.  - Hebrews 2:14-18

Bob Hostetler offers 31 ways to pray for your teen (or a teenager you know or see around you).  His first prayer point is vital to pray; and the Scriptures that each prayer point is focused or centered upon are worth looking up, reading, and praying through individually beyond simply praying or parroting what he's written!

Praying for Your Teen is a link with additional Scripture-based prayer points to help focus on praying for teens.  A statement in the article, "There is a myth that teenagers cannot practice self-control, that the teenage and young adult years are the time for "sewing wild oats", and Scriptures refuting that idea, are also valuable.

As you'll see as you read and pray through many of the Scriptures and prayer points offered in these links, you may also find that you pray some of these points for yourself and your personal walk with Jesus Christ.  That's perfectly okay!

God often does His greatest work of answered prayer in the heart of the person praying- although He often reveals ways He's answered our prayers for others in their lives/circumstances as well.  Our personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ is our most valuable possession- and it's one of, if not THE most valuable possession to God as well.  Let's continue seeking and pressing into Him through today, tonight, and the day(s) to come.  Whether we focus our prayers on children, teens, ourselves, or others, we won't be disappointed as we turn to God as our Rock, Center, Stronghold, and more!

In His grip,

Rob Griepentrog