"We live by faith, not by sight." II Corinthians 5:7
One of the shortest verses I will ever write a devotional about. Just seven little words, but very packed full of meaning. We live in a very sensory stimulated world. The sights, sounds, tastes, smells and touch of things are thrown at us constantly and relentlessly. I don't even think we escape it in sleep. We even dream about what we saw, heard, tasted, smelled and felt recently and even a long time ago. We are probably over-stimulated, and I'm not just talking about caffeine here either. Think about it!
If I close my eyes for very long, I start smelling and hearing better. It is like I can't shut it off. I want to sometimes too. Call me weird if you must, but I have fantasy thoughts of being in a sensory deprivation chamber and enjoying it for awhile. The classic question about being deserted on an island somewhere and how hard that would be? If I answer honestly, I ask how many months are we talking about? The first few months would be glorious. Don't get me wrong, I like people, but solitude isn't all bad either. We are way too connected to this world and I think our senses have a lot to do with that. What actually gets in the way of me experiencing living by faith and not by sight are my over-activated senses. If I close my eyes, I can pray better. If I can shut down the noise, the smells, the tastes and keep from touching anything, I can pray even better. Living by faith is easier than by sight. That is why Paul recommends it.
Hebrews 11:1 says "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen." Think deeply now, what? Faith is seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling and touching it without your five senses. Faith is compiling and documenting the understanding of what you know about God without sensory proof. Jesus loves me whether I can sense that in any way physically or not. The Bible says, "Be still and know that I am God", for a good reason. It is hard to if you don't, won't or can't. (most likely won't is why don't and you can't). We are so full of natural stimuli, we find it hard to connect with the supernatural. Here is a tough question for you... If we indeed live by faith and not by sight, then why is what we see, hear, taste, smell and feel, so dang important? Until we really live by faith, we will never see, hear, taste, smell or touch God the way He intended. Once we do, our senses can work for us instead of against us. So, seeing isn't really believing as much as believing is really seeing.
Living by faith, (even if I have to close my eyes and ears more often to do it).
Pastor Fred
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Though the overall message was gripping, I don't think I can get to my thoughts on it before I comment on how much I absolutely love the idea of a sensory deprivation chamber! CRACKING UP HERE!!! (Seriously, I laughed out loud!)
ReplyDeleteAside from that, thank you for the inspiring encouragement to live by faith. I seem to be getting better at that each day as I grow closer to the Lord. Oh, how He's changing me. I can feel it, I can sense it. I can look back over the last several years and see how my faith has grown, but I can look ahead and see so many of the ways in which it still needs to grow more. Right now, the Lord seems to have me in a sort of blind zone, so this devotional is particularly personal for me. I can see very little about His plan for my life, but I'm walking in faith that whatever He plans is good. I got quiet with Him today and it was nice to just sit back and listen for Him rather than talk at Him as I often do. I pray that with each day I walk a little more by faith and less by sight. What an awesome day it will be when I don't even care what tomorrow holds because I'll just be so confident and trusting in Him that by faith, I'll know it's good.