The story of Zacchaeus is an incredibly short story but expresses the amazing and immediate impact of Christ intersecting with someone who doesn’t have many needs due to position of power and wealth but yet Jesus brought upon a dynamic life change. I would say the life change was queued up from the very beginning by Zacchaeus “seeking to see who Jesus was” for himself. Through that desire he decided in his mind and focused his efforts on finding Jesus and ended up experience Jesus.
The power of imagery that we obtain in our mind, maybe the most under estimate power of influence we overlook. In 2008 a team of Psychologist associated with Vanderbilt University conducted a study that revealed the influence of the mind and how it literally affects the physical outlook of life.
They asked individuals to imagine a pattern of vertical or horizontal lines. They then created a binocular rivalry by showing green horizontal lines to one eye and a red vertical lines to the other eye simultaneously. Some individuals would express that they were seeing both patterns. Which means their mind was jumping back and forth between the two signals being sent to the brain. Sounds almost like a wayward christian trying to focus their mind on the world and or on following Jesus.
The majority of individuals said that that they actually only saw the pattern of lines that they imagined. The implications of that reveal a strong reality that our mind is capable taking an image from our imagination and focus it into a reality. Or it’s like God wired us to able to live a lifestyle that would be presented and offered to us, that called us worship and glorify God through every action we make in this life.
I’m not saying that Zacchaeus had decided to follow Jesus before meeting Jesus. But he did decide to discover Jesus and his response allowed him to receive salvation and a purpose for his life that not only interacted with others but gave to others.
Pray that you would imagine a life glorifying God and then allow your mind and actions identify what is glorifying to Jesus.