4th July 2024

Open your eyes
This is the fourteenth in a series of studies on the subject of prayer

I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.
Psalm 16:8 (NIVUK) 

You don’t have to go to church for very long before you will hear ‘bow your heads and close your eyes’ as the congregation comes to a time of prayer. Traditionally, Christians have been taught to close their eyes when they pray, to help concentration and avoid distractions. But bowing our heads and closing our eyes has no more biblical warrant than other positions for prayer, such as standing, kneeling or prostrating on the floor. We are told that when Jesus prayed ‘he looked towards heaven’ (John 17:1).

The use of our different senses can enliven our prayers because they are the means by which we perceive the world around us. So, let me suggest that on at least some occasions, you try praying with your eyes open. By praying with our eyes closed we cut out the visual sights around us when we could use them to deepen our prayers. Our praying can often become more meaningful when we focus on a visually rich scene, such as sitting in a garden, overlooking the sea, or looking up to heaven. 

Others have found that focusing on a symbol or a picture such as a cross, the Communion elements, or a photograph of a loved one, is helpful, while others take their Bible with them to pray in response to the scriptures they are reading.

Why not give your eyes a role in your praying, allowing some time in silence to think about what you are looking at and considering an appropriate response to God? As we watch and wait, trust and expect, it’s a way in which ‘the eyes of your heart may be enlightened’ (Ephesians 1:18).

Prayer
Loving Father, as we look around us, open our hearts to see you, our desires to receive you, our being to host you, and our lives to be lived for you. Come, be the centre of our attention as our gaze rests on you, and as we perceive your gaze resting on us. In Jesus’s name, Amen.

Study by Barry Robinson

About the writer:
Barry Robinson is a minister in Grace Communion International and Regional Pastor for Southern England, the Midlands, and Wales

Local congregation:
Grace Communion West Hampstead
Sidings Community Centre
150 Brassey Road
West Hampstead
London
NW6 2BA

Meeting time:
Sunday 12.30 pm

Local congregational contact:
Gordon Brown
gordon.brown@gracecom.church

Word of Life contact:
wordoflife@gracecom.church