Blinded Minds

“The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers,
so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is
the image of God” (2 Cor. 4:4).

“I will rescue you from your own people and from the
Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from
darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive
forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me”
(Acts 26:17-18).

“Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest’? I
tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest”
(John 4:35).

We have two problems here:

·      
The enemy has blinded the minds of
unbelievers. The solution? Jesus told Paul to open their eyes, turn them to
the light, and turn them from the power of Satan to God.

·      
The believers have their eyes closed.
They do not see the ripe harvest when it is right in front of them. The
solution? Open your own eyes.

Even after the minds blinded by the Enemy have been open so
that light can shine in, the unbeliever is still under the power of Satan.

“The devil…has taken them captive to do his will” (2 Tim.
2:26).

“But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to
sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were
entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to
righteousness” (Rom. 6:17-18).

“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins,
in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the
ruler of the kingdom of air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are
disobedient” (Eph. 2:1-2).

“When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision
of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our
sins” (Col. 2:13).

The solution?

“And the Lord’s servant must not quarrel; instead, he must
be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Those who oppose him he must
gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them
to a knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim. 2:24-25).

“Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful
but the workers are few’” (Matt. 9:37).

The harvest is ripe; the harvest is plentiful; the laborers
are few.

The solution? Ask the Lord of the harvest to send out
workers into his harvest.

This post coordinates with tomorrow’s reading in the To
the Word! Bible Reading Challenge. If you are not in a daily reading plan,
please join us at totheword.com. We would love to have you reading with us.