April 18: Seeing is Becoming

"Now Jacob took for himself rods of green poplar and of the almond and chestnut trees, peeled white strips in them, and exposed the white which was in the rods. And the rods which he had peeled, he set before the flocks in the gutters, in the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink, so that they should conceive when they came to drink. So the flocks conceived before the rods, and the flocks brought forth streaked, speckled, and spotted...And it came to pass, whenever the stronger livestock conceived, that Jacob placed the rods before the eyes of the livestock in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods." (Gen 30:37-41)

What you keep seeing, you will reenact and reproduce. Jacob wanted the flocks to give birth to streaked, speckled and spotted offsprings, so he set striped rods before their eyes. As the flocks saw the rod, they reproduced after what they saw. This is a useful story to illustrate a principle in life. What you set before your eyes will determine what you eventually reproduce in your life. Pictures are like seeds in the mind. They produce after their own kind.

The eye is a very powerful organ. It is one of the gates to the heart and mind. Whatever the eye continually focuses on will become a reality in the life of the owner. This is because what the eyes sees provides image materials for the imagination to use in forming its picture, then the pictures in your mind determine the direction of your life. Your inner picture determines your outer future. What you constantly see, you are gradually becoming. Look at what Paul the apostle said, 

"But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord." ( 2 Cor 3:18)

As we continue seeing the Lord through His word, we become transformed into His image. We become more and more like Him. We take on His characteristics. 

It also works the same way in the negative, Jesus said, “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!"(Matt 6:22-23)

So use your eye well. Watch what you place before it. Be selective with what you watch on tv and online. See every image that bombards your mind as a scenario that seeks to become your experience. Deliberately place before your eyes pleasing pictures and images whose fruits in your life will bring glory to Him. Covenant with your eyes like two great men of the bible, Job and David, who said,  

“I have made a covenant with my eyes; Why then should I look upon a young woman?". ( Job 31:1)
" I will set nothing wicked before my eyes; I hate the work of those who fall away; It shall not cling to me" .(Psalm 101:3)

As you deliberately choose the focus of your vision, you will be rewarded in life as you begin to see like Jacob's flocks, things taking on shades and stripes similar to what you've placed before your eyes.

Decision of the Day

I understand that what is the continual focus of my vision will reproduce itself in my life. So today I choose to focus on the right things. I will guard my eyes, knowing that it is a gate to my soul. I covenant with my eyes today. I will only fix my eyes on what I wish to become, because seeing is becoming.