Day 7 of Illumination: We may need to ask the Lord for “fresh eyes.”

25 Days of Illumination

Day 7: We may need to ask

“Then the secret was revealed to Daniel in a night vision. So Daniel blessed the God of heaven. Daniel answered and said: “Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, For wisdom and might are His. And He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise And knowledge to those who have understanding. He reveals deep and secret things; He knows what is in the darkness, And light dwells with Him. “I thank You and praise You, O God of my fathers; You have given me wisdom and might, And have now made known to me what we asked of You, For You have made known to us the king’s demand.””

‭‭Daniel‬ ‭2:19-23‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Once upon a time there was a truck driver who chose to go into a tunnel for which the truck was to tall to clear. However, the driver, not knowing this, went with good speed into the tunnel where his truck became hopelessly stuck.

It wasn’t long before a small crowd gathered to survey the predicament into which the driver had gotten himself. Traffic was building up behind the truck and horns were blowing. The gathered “experts” were taking turns hurling possible solutions, only to be told by one of the others why their plan wouldn’t work.

As the group of men all paused to wipe their brows, still searching for a way to dislodge the truck, a little boy walking by, said, “Why don’t you let the air out of the tires?”

Now, if we were honest, we have all been in situations where we could not figure out how to make something work, or how work something out, and some other person or source comes up with a solution that was totally out of the realm of our thinking.

Some people reference this as putting “fresh eyes” on the situation. The rationale behind this is that after having looked at a problem for a certain length of time, it’s easy to find yourself at a “dead end.” You feel as though there is no other path to try; you’ve exhausted your inner resources. However, someone who hasn’t gotten caught up in the problem, can see a solution from their “fresh” perspective.

Many times in my father‘s life, when he would come up against a conundrum of sorts, and felt that he had come to the end of his resources, he would submit the problem to the Lord before going to bed and the Lord would reveal the answer to him as he slept or as he woke up.

One of these times concerned the problem we had with people falling down a steep ramp while entering into our little sanctuary. The building we had at that time had most recently been used as a restaurant; the ramp was used to go from the kitchen to the serving area.

Time and time again we would watch from the platform as people would come in the door and then disappear as they tumbled down the ramp and behind the back pews. Thankfully, no one was ever seriously hurt; but something had to be done.

Now, my father was one of those who felt that he needed to fix whatever needed to be fixed, a policy reinforced by the fact that we really did not have enough money to have anybody do anything. We certainly couldn’t get a consultant to come out and look at the situation. Trying to tear out the ramp would be laborious and costly. Additionally, the only thing that would be able to replace the ramp would be very steep stairs, as there was not a lot of room between the back pews. We needed those pews and my father did not want to remove them. But, after having “officially” presented the problem to the Lord, he went to sleep and the Lord showed him the plan of how to fix it—something he could do at minimal expense and would actually be beautiful.

The answer was to build out a platform at the height of the top of the ramp and put stairs down either side. We were thrilled with the plan the Lord has shown him.

In our opening scripture we see Daniel giving thanks to the Lord for revealing to him what any of us would think was an impossible answer.

The thing was, King Nebuchadnezzar didn’t just want an interpretation to his dream. You see, he could not remember what the dream was, and wanted someone to tell him what the dream had been and what it meant! But sure enough, when Daniel submitted the conundrum to the Lord, the Lord answered mightily!

Sometimes we want an answer, but have not taken the time to actually submit the problem to the Lord.

Additionally, even when we feel that we have asked the Lord for help, perhaps we haven’t laid aside our own preconceived notions or even our exasperation, to let His light shine in to—what for us is—a dark place.

“If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.”

‭‭James‬ ‭1:5-8‬ ‭NLT‬‬

So let us not run around like a chicken with our head cut off. If we need to know something, if we need an answer, let us ask the Lord and quit seeking from everything/everyone but the Lord. Let’s make Him our first resource. Only the Lord, by way of His Holy Spirit, is able to give us the fresh eyes we may need.

We light a seventh candle of illumination today by knowing this:

We may need to ask the Lord for “fresh eyes.”

#25daysofillumination