Open My Eyes

Open My Eyes

In the darkest years of Apartheid in South Africa, Archbishop Desmond Tutu described his own spiritual discipline as beginning each day with Elisha's prayer: 'Open my eyes, LORD, so that I may see.' He said: 'The visible situation was always more hopeless than the invisible one. I had to learn to see what was real — that God's army was always larger than the enemy's, no matter what our news said.' He credited this daily prayer with sustaining his witness through decades of what seemed like unwinnable struggle. He lived to see the walls come down. He had always been able to see the fire on the hills.

Elisha's servant woke to see the Syrian army surrounding their city and panicked. His panic was rational: by every visible measure, they were finished. Elisha prayed a simple prayer — not for deliverance but for vision. The servant's eyes were opened to a reality that had been there all along: the mountains full of heavenly horses and chariots. The prayer Elisha prayed is one of the most useful in the Bible: Open his eyes. Not 'change the situation.' Not 'send reinforcements.' Open his eyes to see what is already there. The invisible realm is real. The resources available in Christ are real. The question is not whether the army of God surrounds you — it does. The question is whether you can see it. Pray for eyes that see.