Take a few minutes to watch the video.
Very interesting, huh? What you were seeing didn’t match up with what you were hearing, so your brain told you you were hearing a different sound. The truth was that the sound never changed. Only your perception of it did.
I think the same thing happens with our circumstances.
We “hear” God say in Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.”
Or Hebrews 13:5, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”
Then in Romans 8:28, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”
And yet everyday we encounter circumstances that seem impossible for us to handle or overcome. A medical diagnosis. A larger than expected tax bill. Unfair treatment from a supervisor. A rebellious child. A never-ending mountain of laundry, a sink full of dishes and an infant that won’t sleep.
We “hear” God say everything will be okay and we even believe Him for a moment or two, but then we “see” our circumstances again and we become fearful, worried, anxious or discouraged.
Is there any hope for us? Is it really possible to rise above the up and down feelings of this life? Is there any way to truly experience the joy and peace of God regardless of what we see?
The answer is “yes.” The key is to see with the right eyes.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 says:
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 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.
A few verses later, in 2 Corinthians 5:6-7, Paul says:
Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. We live by faith, not by sight.
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.
We live by faith, not by sight.
Abraham was an old man when God told him to leave his home and go to the land God would show him. Abraham had no children when God said, “I will make you into a great nation…”
David was a teenager with no military experience when he faced down Goliath, the Philistine’s most feared soldier.
Noah built a boat. On dry ground.
Moses led Israel out of Egypt and through the desert for 40 years.
Despite a overwhelming odds and a ferocious propaganda campaign, Nehemiah led the rebuilding of the wall around Jerusalem in just 52 days.
A woman who’d been bleeding for 12 years new if she could just touch the cloak Jesus was wearing she’d be healed. She did. And she was.
A Roman soldier requested that Jesus heal his servant. The father of a dying 12-year-old girls asked Jesus to heal her. The servant was healed. The girl, who died before Jesus arrived, was brought back to life.
We fix our eyes on what is unseen. We live by faith.
God gave us His word, the Bible, to reveal Himself, His purposes and His ways to us. As we read it, we get to know Him better. We see what He’s up to in our lives and in the world. We see how He works. And our faith grows stronger.
The more we read it, the more we understand and trust Him. We are better able to fix our eyes in what is unseen. We find that we are more equipped to live by faith, not by what we see.
None of the people I mentioned above were perfect. Abraham passed his wife off as his sister so he wouldn’t be killed. Twice. David committed adultery and murder. Moses disobeyed God and wasn’t even allowed to enter the Promised Land.
No, they weren’t perfect, but they didn’t give up. They kept going despite their sins and circumstances. They chose to fix their eyes on the unseen. They walked by faith, by believing that what God said was true even though what they saw didn’t line up.
Don’t believe what you see.
Believe God.