Lifetime Daily DevotionsSample

Believing Without Seeing

 

Now faith means putting our full confidence in the things we hope for;

it means being certain of things we cannot see.

It was this kind of faith that won their reputation for the saints of old.

And it is after all only by faith that our minds accept as fact

 that the whole scheme of time and space was created by God's command--

that the world which we can see has come into being through

principles which are invisible.

Hebrews 11:1-3

(J.B. Phillips)

 

            I'm so very relieved that I don't have to apply "seeing is believing" to every aspect of my life. I'm not (as Bill says) "the sharpest knife in the drawer" and if the prerequisite for "use" was that I had to understand the "inner workings" of everything, I would be in big trouble.

            Electricity, for example. Perhaps you know all of the "ins and outs" of the miracle of electricity--I definitely do not. I have a basic understanding--you flip the switch!

The same goes for the toilet flushing (and when it doesn't who to call); the microwave (a real mystery); an airplane flying at 33,000 feet; my temperamental, high maintenance computer; and the new thermometers that you just lightly move across a person's brow. (My boys would have loved that! I took their temperatures rectally--quite an ordeal for all concerned!)

            All of that to say that we operate in a world where we exercise faith constantly in so many areas of our lives and accept those "I don't understands" without question. Yet there is one area that comes under the closest scrutiny by the most casual--oft times caustic--observers--God's hand at work. I can't explain His ways or His acts--and I am not expected to understand or to be logically prepared to explain His ways to others. He tells us, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, Neither are your ways My ways," declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways..." (Isaiah 55:8-9). So I don't understand. So I can't explain it. So I can't defend my position. So what to do? There are two options actually: I can shake my head and declare as impossible the premise of the Scripture. Or, I can choose to declare that I believe it!

            One of the most controversial aspects of God is creation. How did it come about? Many people choose to believe the theory of evolution--that everything "evolved"--that all of the intricacies of life "just happened." Yet for the Believer who accepts the Bible as the Word of God, this isn't acceptable. No. "...our minds accept as fact that the whole scheme of time and space was created by God's command--that the world which we can see has come into being through principles which are invisible."[1] And how do we come to that decision? Only by faith.

            Take the element of faith from me and you take God from me. Take God away from me and you take Jesus away and I have a scary world to face by myself without a companion who never leaves me and who loves me without question. Take away my faith and there is no hope of seeing past the ugliness of this world and no hope of ultimate victory.

Then Christ has died needlessly

And peace is a fantasy

Then hope is a wounded word

"The coming King" is but a phrase I've heard ...

and all the world is lost.

 

So I step over the line and become a part of His world. How? By faith. What does that mean? Faith means putting our full confidence in the things we hope for; it means being certain of things we cannot see. It means believing without seeing. I'm so glad I have that option.

 

Jesus said to him,

"Because you have seen Me, have you believed?

Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed."

John 20:29 (NAS)

 

 

 

[1] Other Scriptures that proclaim God as the Creator: Job 38 (Marvelous!), Psalm 19:1-6, Psalm 104:24-26, Isaiah 45:12,18, Isaiah 48:13, Jeremiah 10:12-13, Jeremiah 27:5