Seeing Through God’s Eyes: How Values Shape What We Notice and How We Live
- Jack Selcher
- Sep 26, 2025
- 3 min read
Updated: Jan 4
Summary
This devotional explains how perception is shaped by experience, heredity, and values. Using everyday illustrations, it shows that people see and interpret life differently. When believers become God’s children, their values change, reshaping how they view others and respond to the world. As God’s perspective increasingly becomes ours, what we see determines what we do, and transformed values lead to Christlike love, service, and compassion.
Why We Notice Only Certain Things
We focus on only a small part of everything we can see. A moving thing grabs our attention. It is most likely to threaten our well-being.
For example, I was fishing one day at dusk while standing in the water. A muskrat swam directly toward me. It approached within five feet.
It turned aside only after I splashed water at it vigorously. Of all I could have seen, I saw only the muskrat. Our brains filter out many details in our field of vision.
How Experience Shapes Our Vision
Moreover, what we see is as unique as our fingerprints. We see the world differently. Our experience teaches us to see different things out of a galaxy of possibilities.
We learned diverse ways to interpret reality. A man is begging on a street corner. We might see a needy person. We might see a lazy one. Why do we interpret the situation differently?
Family, Values, and Learned Perspectives
We see and interpret life through others’ glasses. Our parents significantly sway both what we see and how we understand it. Similarly, their parents influenced them. How we see the world is part of our heredity.
My father taught me to look for snakes when I walk. My eyes still focus on the ground several feet ahead, even though I rarely see a snake in my path.
My wife’s allergies affect how I interpret what I see. She is allergic to foods, perfumes, and pollen. For example, I now see flowers as a threat instead of a beautiful, fragrant addition to our home.
My daughter has celiac disease. She cannot tolerate wheat in any form. You might see a fresh loaf of French bread as a welcome addition to your meal. I now interpret the bread and spaghetti on your plate as hazardous to her health.
Everyday Illustrations of Selective Vision
Our values impact what we see and how we understand it. In the darkness, they shine like a spotlight on a small percentage of the things that fill the room.
We ignore what does not matter to us. When I drive over a bridge crossing a river or stream, the water has a magnetic attraction for me. My family teases me about it. It goes with being infected with the fishing bug.
Worldly Values Versus Godly Values
Those who receive Jesus as our Savior and Lord are God’s children (John 1:12) with heavenly heredity. Our values change. Ever after, God influences what we see and how we understand it.
The people that the world shapes value getting their way, material prosperity, and appearing important (1 John 2:16). We know we have already spent too much time living like that.
Spiritual Heredity as God’s Children
God influences us to value love, service, and blessing others (Matthew 22:37-39). We see the people the world shapes as sheep without a shepherd (Matthew 9:36).
Seeing Through God's Eyes
Professor Haddon Robinson said, “In any situation, what you are determines what you see, what you see determines what you do.” 1
Believers are children of God. Like a child looking through Daddy’s glasses, we see the world increasingly as He does.
Little by little, adopting His values changes who we are today. Seeing through God's eyes determines what we see and do tomorrow. See additional free spiritual growth resources for Christians. #freediscipleshipresources #freeevangelismresources #freechristianleadershipresources
God has empowered me to write His Power for Your Weakness—260 Steps Toward Spiritual Strength. It’s a free, evangelistic, devotional, and discipleship e-book. Pastors have used it in Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia to lead 7,541 people to Christ and teach the basics of Christianity to 17,361 people. I invite you to explore and use it in your setting.
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