“But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.” (2 Peter 1:9)
Did you ever watch Mr. Magoo cartoons? He was an old guy who was “nearsighted and blind” who would comically walk into all kinds of peril and narrowly escape death over and over again without a clue that he was ever off track in the fist place.
Peter is describing Mr. Magoo in today’s verse. Okay, not that Mr. Magoo. He’s describing Christians who do not have the 8 qualities we’ve been working at growing in this week: faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love.
Without those qualities, a person is living with distorted view of the universe. All that matters without them is getting what I want right now. I can’t live for anything valuable. I forget that God cleaned me up from my sinful ways, that that’s not who I am any more.
Think: Do you ever get near-sighted and blind because you can’t stop looking at what you want and start looking at what God wants for you? How does that distort our view of the world?
Pray: Ask God to help you to not be near-sighted and blind and to remember that you’ve been cleansed from your sins through faith in Jesus. Ask him to help you to work at adding these qualities into your life with his power.
Do: Watch the classic opening to Mr. Magoo and wonder what it looks like to be spiritually near-sighted.