Carrots for Your Spirit

“But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.”

II Peter 1:9

Did your mother say to you what my mother sometimes said to me: “Eat your carrots; they are good for your eyes to help you see”?

 I leave the value of that statement to nutritionists but if it is true I think I may have found its “spiritual” counterpart. Suppose you wanted to improve your spiritual eyesight, what do you think you could do? Well, Peter explains by listing for us in verses 5-8 what the meaning of “them” is from verse 9.

Look at it with me:

“For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge;

and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness;

and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.

For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being

ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

None of us would knowingly desire to be nearsighted and certainly not blind,

physically or spiritually.

Peter tells us how we can prevent spiritual blindness. He lists for us these eight characteristics: Faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control,

perseverance, godliness, mutual affection and love.

He says we should make every effort to have these and then reinforces their importance by saying we should possess these qualities in increasing measure. In other words they are not static in nature but should continue to grow in us as we mature in Him.

I don’t know about you but apart from the enabling power of His Holy Spirit I am helpless to see that happen. There’s the key – do you see that happening? Do you see yourself abiding in Christ and relying on the enablement of the Holy Spirit? I am not talking about some New Age visualization technique but rather an understanding of the power of His word and His Spirit to change you to see what He sees in you!