When you think about it, all of it is on loan from God!

Welcome to a brand spanking new Monday on this 13th day of October 2008. My wife and I have made our relocation from our eldest son’s home to our borrowed temporary residence that was so graciously loaned to us. Our stay with him and his family for nearly a month was nothing short of a blessing and time of refreshing as he and his family went out of their way to make us feel at home and comfortable. Thinking about our damaged property, our situation, and the coming days of uncertainty got me to reflecting on how we often grasp, hang on to, and hold tightly to so many of the temporary things associated with our sojourn in our time here on planet earth. While this is a natural response from our human nature, fallen as it is, we are called upon as God’s children to learn the difference between the unseen and sure versus the fleeting and temporary. I am convinced this characteristic is the primary ingredient of the fabric of true maturity in the life of a believer, that is, being able to walk by faith and not by sight.

Saying the words, they flow easily off our tongues and we find ourselves buying into the faith-walk concept without really considering exactly what this walk consists of. In the midst of trying to get hold of this truth we are constantly bombarded with relentless distortions that promise a grab bag of mystical and magical spell-like blessings for those who twist faith into some type of the speaking into existence of a pain free life filled with nothing but health, wealth, and prosperity. One thing is clear. The extent of all that God has revealed about those who please Him by walking in faith, makes us to know assuredly that these heretical and nonsensical distortions are totally foreign to true faith. This leaves us with this question: What does true faith see and how does seeing it impact a life?

In a dialogue with a good Christian brother recently via email, we were going forth and back about God’s revelation of Himself as being Sovereign in all things. This friend made an interesting observation when he said that we were essentially attempting to comprehend the incomprehensible. BINGO! That’s it. I would add that comprehending and then embracing the unseen, invisible, but sure and certain truths God has given to us can become shoe leather for our walk when we allow Him through His Holy Spirit to lead, guide, direct, and He and His ways become the outcome we seek from our life. Again, it’s fairly easy to talk about these matters and even to be thrilled by the discussion but we who are believers will be presented with specific opportunities to choose whom we will serve, the temporary and seen, or the certain but unseen God we love.

Heavy and heady for a Monday but if you think on these things, you will be blessed. The good news for us all is that it does not take a theologian to get hold of this type of faith walk. Look at Hebrews Chapter 11 and see the range and reach of people that became heroes of faith by believing God above and beyond their circumstances. I love that passage where the Apostle Thomas had doubted the resurrection of Jesus because he had not been there when Jesus appeared to the others. In the Gospel of John Chapter 20 we find that remarkable reunion where Thomas gets to see his Lord in person. In response Thomas fell down and worshipped Him. Jesus told Thomas that he was blessed for having seen and believed but even more blessed would be those who do not see but believe the testimony of truth regarding Him. He was talking about you and I. We have not seen the nail prints in his hands or touched His pierced side but yet we walk by our belief in the reality of His provision for us in His death, burial, and resurrection. That’s the beginning of the unseen but transforming truth that provides us the ability to walk each day by faith and not by sight! I better stop now and try to figure out if I know anything at all about what I have written today. That could take a while. Have a blessed week! Amen. More later.