I was pricked in my conscience this morning as we read the Scriptures at our Family Devotions. 2 Corinthians 5: 7 says: “We walk by faith, not by sight.” Can we truly say these words?
How often we get in a state of turmoil if everything around us looks overwhelming or even impossible. What do we do when we don’t know where the next penny is coming from and we can’t pay the bills? When we can’t see what we want, or think we need, we panic. But we, as God’s children, are not to walk by what we see, but by faith.
I pray that God will raise me to a higher plane. May we all rise to a higher plane. Why live on the plane of doubts, fear, and despair when God wants us to come up to the plane of faith? I love the words of the hymn by Johnson Oatman, Jr.:
Lord, lift me up and let me stand,
By faith, on Heaven’s table land,
A higher plane than I have found;
Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.
My heart has no desire to stay
Where doubts arise and fears dismay;
Though some may dwell where those abound,
My prayer, my aim, is higher ground.
We are also encouraged in 2 Corinthians 4:17, 18: “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
Do you think we could seek to live by the truth of “what we cannot see” today? Try it for a day. When difficulties, afflictions, and problems arise, turn your eyes away from them and turn them on the Lord and the eternal perspective. Look at them with the eyes of faith. Look at how God sees them from the eternal point of view.
And remember, God is far bigger than your worries, your problems, and the biggest mountain you can face. He sees beyond what you see. As we look to the Lord and allow Him to have His way, our afflictions work for us a “FAR MORE EXCEEDING AND ETERNAL WEIGHT of glory.” Do you notice that God uses five adjectives to describe the eternal blessings we receive for a temporary affliction here on earth?
Be blessed today,
Nancy Campbell