If you ask God to reveal to you the areas of your experience that needs growth, He will. But He will also help you to be stronger. 

Hartland Fall Conference 2017: The Divine Right to Rule

<p>If you ask God to reveal to you the areas of your experience that needs growth, He will. But He will also help you to be stronger. </p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Hartland Institute of Health and Education

Fred Dana

Blind Spots

A man from Colorado moved to Texas, and he built a nice new home with a large living room window from which he could view for many miles the rangeland.

The problem, he said, there's nothing to see.

A man from Texas moved to Colorado and he built a nice new home as well with a large living room window, with a great view of the Rocky Mountains.

The problem, he says, I can't see anything.

See, each 1 judges or sees according to his own expectations.

And in this case, each 1 of these men would wonder why the other couldn't see the obvious beauty.

Each might ask the other, what are you blind?

But sometimes we can't see what other people can see.

And today we're talking about blind spots.

Husbands and wives can have some really troublesome blind spots.

You know, take a husband who doesn't lift a finger to help his wife with childcare or with home chores, But he can't see why his wife is frustrated and unhappy or maybe even discouraged and depressed.

The husband is completely blind to his own selfishness, but to the wife it's as plain as a nose on your face.

And she doesn't know what she got stuck with.

You remember the protests and violence in, it was Charlottesville, right?

I was out in California, so it was a long ways away, but it wasn't far from here this summer.

Do you think blind spots have a part in racism?

If people could see themselves more clearly, if blind spots were no longer there, Could situations and relationships be benefited?

Think about this, you know, if someone goes to the city, they see lights and glitter and they might totally not see the lonely people.

Or think about the person who seems to be making critical, a lot of critical remarks, complaining, And that's all you hear from them.

And totally miss the cry for love and friendship.

You know, some blind spots are innocent, even humorous.

You know, sometimes people are predictable about things in a funny way.

You know, some people regularly offend others.

Maybe someone just came to your mind, or maybe more than 1 person came to your mind.

Yet these persons that regularly offend others don't see how it happens.

So blind spots can affect people's ability to get along.

But the truth is, if people could see themselves more clearly, if blind spots were no longer there, situations and relationships could be dramatically improved.

Take for instance a fourth grade teacher.

Fourth grade teacher was sick for a whole week.

And Those fourth graders, I don't know what kind of discussions they were having, and I can't imagine how this came about, but they actually had a vote to see if they wanted the teacher to have a speedy recovery.

The good news was that the majority of the students voted for her speedy recovery.

Now, if you were the teacher, would you have considered that good news?

Because anybody that's worked with elementary grade levels knows that fourth graders usually bond really well with their teachers.

So this wouldn't just be some typical attitude from kids, but it would be an opportunity for the teacher to try to understand what's wrong, what could improve things between her and her students.

You've been out of work for a week and, well, your colleagues are voting about your speedy recovery.

You know, maybe they'll think about the work that's not getting done.

But if it's based totally on your personality, how would it go?

Do you ever wonder what people say about you when you're not there to hear it?

Now we've all been there when people are discussing a certain person and they're talking about something that that person wouldn't even have a clue anybody would talk about.

Have you ever wished, I'm going to ask you some questions that probably you've never been asked before and you're probably going to think these are kind of weird, but I'm going to ask them anyway.

Have you ever wished that you could hear what people say about you?

How many of you have never even thought of that before?

Would it be helpful to really know what people think?

When I preached a sermon at Sac Central just a month ago, people were real quiet, and then I started seeing heads going like this, and someone did what you just did.

I mean, would you be afraid that you might find out some things that would really be uncomfortable to learn?

I'm not sure I would want my church members to tell me things that they think I should know about myself.

Could I trust that they would be fair and accurate.

Now I might listen to someone that I really trust and that I know loves me.

Well, I'd like to say I always do, but I'd be lying.

If she was here, maybe she'd disagree, I don't know, because she knows my blind spots.

But I trust that she loves me and really cares about me.

And that makes it easier for me to hear her critiques.

If we really knew what people think of us, really understand how we come across to them, that could be potentially life-altering knowledge.

Our prayers for God's help would be way more knowledgeable and specific than they are as it is.

We would have things we know we need to talk to God about that we wouldn't know otherwise, or I should say that we don't know otherwise.

We could grow into way better people, but we can't handle that.

In fact, we run away from any self-revelations.

I mean, the fact that people have been hurtful in our experience doesn't give us any confidence either, does it?

So we avoid revelations of self like it's leprosy.

Does the Bible and the spirit of prophecy have anything to say about blind spots?

Does every human being need their eyes opened at least sometimes?

The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.

If this is the natural sinful human heart, you know, if this is my heart, deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, what is implied by the question, who can know it?

It's implied that I can't even know my own heart, right?

We have a verse, does it show 2 Corinthians 13, 5?

Blind Spots

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