How to See a Spiritual Blind Spot

A necessary step for assurance

If you asked me if I’m a perfect person with no room for improvement in any area, I would laugh and say no.

If you asked in what ways I could improve, I could certainly list you a few.

If you asked if I may have room to grow in ways I don’t currently see, I would say yes.

But if you asked me what they are, by their definition, I couldn’t tell you.

I imagine if I turned the tables and asked you all the same questions, you’d answer in the same ways. And just like me, you don’t know what you don’t know. A blind spot wouldn’t be a blind spot if you could see it.

This can be a significant impediment to our ability to feel assurance.

Few things are more unsettling than the sudden realization that you’ve had a blind spot.

Maybe you realize you’ve been doing something to hurt or drive someone away without knowing it, or have had some flaw or shortcoming of which you were unaware. When those moments happen, it shakes your confidence.

Other times it might occur when you learn you were wrong about some Biblical belief. While you’re glad to have reached your improved understanding, now you’re left to wonder what else you have wrong, and whether God will hold it against you.

One minute, everything seemed fine; the next, it wasn’t. In the future, any time things seem fine, you’ll start to wonder what you might be missing. Is there another shoe, and when is it going to drop? What if I die before it does, and I never have a chance to fix the blind spot?

We’ll probably never eliminate every possible blind spot. But that doesn’t mean we can’t feel assured.

We can maintain our confidence with these three steps:

Trust God’s Promises

I think in too many cases we view God as a neutral party in our salvation. Yeah, He made it possible for us to be saved. Now He’s left us the path and it’s up to us to follow it—or so the thinking goes.

But if the love that sent Jesus to the cross is somehow not enough to convince us of His love for us and desire for our salvation (John 3:16), the Spirit within is more than enough proof that He is an active help in our walk (Romans 8).

So, the God who knows all of our blind spots and wants them fixed is also here to help us identify and outgrow them.

When He said He will satisfy those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (Matthew 5:6), we should trust Him. When He said that He would give to those who ask, seek, and knock (Matthew 7:7-11), we should trust Him. When He promised wisdom to all who ask without doubting (James 1:5-6), we should trust Him.

Our prayer should be the same as David’s in Psalm 139:23-24:

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.”

Beyond that, He gives us grace. I don’t think any of us believe we’ll be 100% perfect at the moment we die. If that were a requirement for eternal salvation, nobody would be saved. Jesus’ death would have been a waste. He knew He was saving humans in our weakness. Trust that if your desire is for Him, He will show you what you need to know and forgive what isn’t fully perfected in this life.

Lean on your Christian family

One of the ways God helps us see our blind spots is through the eyes of other people. This can happen through public teaching and preaching, but it is especially effective when it comes from someone in close proximity to us.

They are those “who are spiritual” restoring us and helping bear our burdens (Galatians 6:1-2). They are the ones potentially saving us from death and covering a multitude of sins (James 5:19-20).

The only catch is, it’s hard to hear that we need to repent or make a change. We have to be humble enough to accept advice and correction when it comes. As I wrote recently, approachability is a mandatory attribute if we want to grow.

Look in the Mirror

The Bible contains a lot of neat trivia, but it’s not a trivia book. The Bible contains a lot of religious regulations, but it’s not a code book. At its heart, it is a mirror, an undeniable standard that reveals our flaws and shows us God’s plan to correct our biggest problem: sin (James1).

So, when we open the Word it is not just to learn a series of facts or to find more ways to prove that others are wrong. Our greatest aim should be to learn who God is and see what He requires of us.

If we’re asking the Lord’s guidance, listening to trusted guides, and using the Word to examine ourselves, we can be confident He will show us what we need to see.

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Notes

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