Do You See the Full Picture?
Your world doesn't have to be so small
The demon Screwtape once counseled his protégé nephew Wormwood, “It is funny how mortals always picture us as putting things in their minds; in reality our best work is done by keeping things out.”
I thought of this profound insight from C. S. Lewis’s satirical The Screwtape Letters as I recently studied Paul’s first (of two) prayers for the church in Ephesians. Paul prays that God’s people would receive from God “the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him . . . that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what is the wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe” (Eph 1:17-19).
According to the apostle, the church’s greatest need is to see all of reality. He’s concerned that believers might go through life not seeing the full picture. Access to hope, joy, and power depends upon seeing the full reality of Christ resurrected, exalted, and reigning. It’s possible for a Christian—someone regenerated and saved through Christ—to go through life unaware of what Christ has fully accomplished and thus cut off from the full impact of his work. Paul doesn’t want believers to go through life wearing blinders unnecessarily. He doesn’t want us to live in defeat when Christ has won the victory already.
Satan, the “ruler of the power of the air,” works to prevent us from seeing Christ seated “at his right hand in the heavens—far above every ruler and authority, power and dominion, and every title given, not only in this age but also in the one to come” (Eph 1:20-21). He’s a master at keeping our eyes fixated on defeat and doom. The average American spends seven hours per day staring at a screen. We passively imbibe whatever information the algorithms feed us. We don’t typically choose our focus; we gaze at whatever happens to cross our path. In this world under Satan’s domain, Christ’s victory will never “happen” into our line of vision. We must purposefully focus on Christ reigning in the heavens.
Paul instructs us to take control of this process. He relocates the battleground from “out there” in the world to “in here” in our own minds. The battle “out there” has already been won by Christ. Rather than conformity to the world, we are to be transformed by the renewal of our minds (Rom 12:2). We must take every thought captive to obey Christ (2 Cor 10:5). Paul is deeply concerned, not only with the outward actions of our lives, but with the hidden meditations of our minds (Phil 4:8), for the latter determines the former.
The greatest conspiracy in the world didn’t originate in Washington. The oldest, most impactful conspiracy humanity faces is the demonic effort to make us believe that what our physical eyes see is all there is, that everything that happens only has an earthly cause. We unnecessarily live in a shrunken world where we often experience hopelessness, powerlessness, and feeling trapped. Prayer isn’t hard just because we’re distracted and there’s never enough time. Prayer is hard because Satan knows that prayer lifts the veil and provides the access point from this earth to the victory of Christ in heaven. Satan and this world conspire to do whatever it takes to keep us off our knees and anxiously despairing.
In 2 Kings 6, Elisha the prophet is trapped in a town called Dothan with one of his servants. His servant looks out and sees the king of Aram with a massive army and horses and chariots. They are there for one reason only—to destroy Elisha and his servant. Any reasonable assessment of the situation leads to one conclusion—the prophet is doomed. Elisha’s servant panics, asking, “Oh, my master, what are we to do?” And then Elisha prays a prayer but one we don’t expect. We expect, “Lord, save us.” Elisha prays, “O LORD, please open his eyes that he may see.” And then we read, “So the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all round Elisha.”
Christ has already won the victory through the cross and resurrection. He is exalted high above every enemy we face on this earth. We lack nothing because we are seated with him in heaven. But taking advantage of his victory requires living in awareness of it. Do you see him? It won’t happen by default. You’ll need to set up your life so that the clear vision of Christ’s victory is never impeded.