Live By Faith and Not By Sight

Life can be so hard. Life is full of trouble and confusion and heartache and pain.

Jesus warned us of this -

John 16:33

"I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world."

"Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows."

Isn't that so true, friend?

There is a saying that you're either right now coming out of a hard season, or are currently in a hard season or are about to go into a hard season.

No one gets to escape hard seasons. All of us know what pain is like in its many forms.

So what do we do when we are going through sorrow and pain?

How do we live when circumstances look bleak and unending?

When the way forward seems impossible.

When sight looks miserable and hopeless and painful and unbearable.

The Bible tells us to remind ourselves that we live by faith and not by sight.

I love both the NIV and the expanded The Message version of this verse.

2 Corinthians 5:7 - NIV

"For we live by faith, not by sight."

2 Corinthians 5:6-8 - MSG

"That’s why we live with such good cheer. You won’t see us drooping our heads or dragging our feet! Cramped conditions here don’t get us down. They only remind us of the spacious living conditions ahead. It’s what we trust in but don’t yet see that keeps us going. Do you suppose a few ruts in the road or rocks in the path are going to stop us? When the time comes, we’ll be plenty ready to exchange exile for homecoming."

"It’s what we trust in but don’t yet see that keeps us going."

That is powerful.

Faith is what keeps us going.

When things feel hard, we don't hold onto what we "feel" to be true but what we believe and know in our hearts to be true.

Even when we are struggling to see how anything could possibly work out for good, we choose to view things not from our own perspective but instead from the eternal perspective of God. We fix our eyes on Christ. And through reminding ourselves of His example, God will strengthen our faith to keep going.

Hebrews 12:1-3

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart."

So what was the example of Christ?

This verse shows us how even though Christ knew that the death on the cross was going to be shameful and gruelingly hard to endure, He still endured it because He had set His eyes on the JOY waiting for Him on the other side of the pain.

He looked at His painful situation from the eternal perspective.

He looked past the circumstances and reminded Himself of the eternal joy that would come after the cross.

Friend, if we look just at our circumstances, things probably look painful at best and horrific at worst.

But we are called to NOT live by sight

We have been called to live by faith.

Colossians 3:1-4

"Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory."

Do we trust that God is sovereign and good and all powerful and loving?

We either trust in Him or we don't. There is no middle.

If we trust that He is all that He says He is, then we can trust that no matter what we are going through, God is working it out for His glory and our eternal good.

We need to remember that God's perspective is not limited like ours.

His perspective is eternal. He sees things we can never see and understands things we can never grasp.

Isaiah 55:8-9

“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.

"And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.

For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,

so my ways are higher than your ways

and my thoughts higher than your thoughts."

Ultimately, we need to remember that He is shaping us and transforming us into the image of Christ. Every single thing that we go through in this life can shape us into being more like Christ, if we allow God to work.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

"That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever."

Let us fix our eyes not on our troubles but on Christ.

Remember that as children of God, none of our pain is without purpose or an end.

There is purpose in our pain.

And there will be an end to our suffering.

Christ's death and resurrection reassures us of this by reminding us of His infinite love for us and His sovereign power over life and death. He endured the cross for us, there is nothing else He will withhold, if He believes it is for our good. And He is the only one who knows what is really and truly and eternally good for us.

Friend, He has the final say.

And despite what our circumstances look like,

our God is GOOD,

our God LOVES us and

He is supremely powerful.

So let us live by faith and not by sight.

Let us fix our eyes not on the troubles that can be seen but instead on things that cannot be seen (like the character He is building within us), for those will last forever.

All our earthly troubles are momentary in light of the vastness of a beautiful eternity in the presence of our God.

Acts 14:21-22

"After preaching the Good News in Derbe and making many disciples, Paul and Barnabas returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch of Pisidia, where they strengthened the believers. They encouraged them to continue in the faith, reminding them that we must suffer many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God."