A Mirrored Reflection
Spiritual food with Jess – June 1, 2026
At times I pray with my eyes wide open. I’ve never understood why we’re always told to bow our heads, close our eyes, and “focus.” I get it, humility, reverence, but that has never been how I connect with God. For me, closing my eyes feels like shutting out the very presence I long to witness. I want to see. I want to stay alert, aware, fully alive in His presence.
I think about the seers in the Bible, the ones God chose to perceive His truth. Numbers 24:3 calls Balaam “the man whose eyes are opened”:
“The oracle of Balaam son of Beor, the man whose eyes are opened, the oracle which he spoke…”
Balaam didn’t just see the world around him. He saw God’s hidden truth, the things others couldn’t perceive. That’s how I want to pray. Eyes open, ready to witness what others might miss, receptive to the Spirit in ways I can’t fully explain.
And God didn’t limit revelation to stillness. In 1 Samuel 10:5–6, Saul meets prophets singing, playing instruments, and prophesying, and the Spirit of God comes on him. Music opened the door for Saul; it activated the Spirit. God moves through sound, movement, action, even objects. Ezekiel lays on his side and uses a clay tablet to illustrate a siege (Ezekiel 4:1–4). Jeremiah uses a linen belt as a living message (Jeremiah 13:1–11). Jeremiah is fully engaged with God’s message through observation and contemplation of a real object.
He is not just reciting words or hoping for insight; he actively sees, meditates, and interprets what God is revealing.
His eyes are open both literally seeing the belt and spiritually perceiving God’s message.
The Spirit is not confined. God works through bodies, senses, symbols and yes, through eyes wide open.
God doesn’t require closed eyes to pray. He cares about the posture of the heart. He sees faith, attentiveness, desire, hunger. Keeping my eyes open is my way of saying, I have all of my physical senses activated to perceive in the spiritual realm.
Praying this way is a posture of participation, of receiving. My eyes, my awareness, my very presence become ways to perceive God, to see, to feel, to hear what He is doing, even when it’s beyond understanding within the simple barriers of my mind. Prayer is not about shutting the world out; it’s about opening myself fully, body and spirit, to perceive His Spirit moving in and around me.
So if you see me praying with my eyes wide open… don’t worry. I’m just doing what a seer does. Yep. Totally biblical. Don’t make it weird. 😄