“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” — 2 Corinthians 4:18
Thought
What do you see most clearly today? Is it what is seen or what is unseen? No matter our belief system, we ultimately have to trust what we can’t see. Even the most atheistic scientist trusts gravity, breathes air, and depends upon principles s/he cannot see until they produce results in the tangible world of human perception. But as Christians, we don’t believe the seen world is as real as the unseen world. The seen world is subject to death, disease, disaster, decay, disorder, and death. I don’t know about you, but if it isn’t any more permanent than that, it’s not very real. I want something to hang on to. That requires I look past the seen to find my Father who is unseen. He is the one who guarantees the unseen!
Prayer
Eternal Father and God of all peoples, help me see more clearly the spiritual, eternal, and real world of the unseen. I am not seeking novelty, nor am I on some quest for the bizarre. I only want to know you, your truth, and your character so I may more appropriately display them to others and help them come find you in the world of the unseen. Please grant me greater success at reaching others, to your glory. In the name of Jesus I pray. Amen.
“But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31
Our Christian walk of faith is often a journey of waiting…and waiting, which we don’t always do with much patience. Put my name at the top of that list, but I am learning. Waiting is hard, because we don’t know what the answer will be. Neither do we know when the answer will come.
Yet, knowing that God holds the answer turns our waiting into trust. As a result, faith renews our strength to wait. And we will need a lot of strength, because we will do a great deal of waiting on our faith journey.
Everything we do, we do by faith. As faith is enabling us to trust and wait, it is also building more faith to help us wait on Him for the results. Many times, those results are a long, long time coming; and yet, faith is required day by day for the journey.
Our journey isn’t necessarily about the end result, but how we endure the unknown. Will we endure when we grow discouraged? Will we trust Him to renew our strength and move us out of the place of discouragement to a place of peace and hope again? In my experience, when I call out to Him with my discouraged heart, He is always faithful to lift me up again; then I can rest once again in knowing He is in control.
Faith is often a waiting journey.
Faith is not a walk of knowing.
Faith is not a knowing journey.
Faith is knowing Him,
Not knowing what the future holds,
But knowing the One who holds the future,
Knowing He is God,
Knowing He is Sovereign.
The choice to trust will help us wait. This choice will help us persevere and grow and learn; it will test us and teach us, and our faith will grow deeper. A deeper faith is the result of bravely waiting on the Lord.
