Turn Away My Eyes and Revive Me
The other day I was reading the Bible, and the Holy Spirit illuminated the following scripture: “Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things, And revive me in Your way.” Psalm 119:37 In this scripture, the Psalmist requests from the Father a physical action…“turn away my eyes”. He is asking God not to remove the worthless things from his sight but for the Lord to change his position…not the position of his head but the position of his eyes—“the windows to the soul”. The psalmist knew, I believe, that in changing the position of his eyes it would help in changing the position of his heart. He knew that it wasn’t about removing the distraction but about obedience and the condition of his heart.
The second part of the verse is vital. Changing the position of the eyes would have been a potentially futile action if not for the counteractive measure he requests from the Lord in the second part: “revive me in Your way”. The dictionary defines “revive” as being restored to life, restored to consciousness, restored in interest, to also give new strength to. The psalmist desires to, in essence, be brought back to life from a place of dormancy or stagnation, a place of wasting his time on worthless things, meaningless things. He seems to long to yet again have a desire for God’s Word and His way. He’s looking for a personal revival.
When the Holy Spirit brought this scripture to my attention, I immediately felt its impact. I pondered how many worthless things I have allowed my eyes to settle upon (especially now because of the additional time provided with the pandemic and social isolation), things that have no real kingdom value. I’ve watched movies, searched the net, played games on apps, watched short videos… Granted, some of what I’ve watched has had kingdom value—worship, testimonies, sermons, but truthfully…other things I have wasted time on had absolutely no kingdom value; they were just worthless time-fillers. There was no spiritual nutrition in them whatsoever.
Today, if this scripture resonates with you like it did with me, let’s ask the Father to forgive us for wasting time, forgive us for filling our minds with worthless things. Let’s ask him to turn our eyes away and revive us in His way. Let us ask Him to help usfill our minds and hearts with what has kingdom value and to help prepare us for what He has in store for His Body in the coming days.
–Katie Botello