faith

An Invisible Faith

/ pastorpete51 / 4 Comments

Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” John 20:29 ESV

Some days it is easier than others to walk in our invisible faith. The circumstances around us seem confusing and often our friends and family wonder why we would choose to blindly follow Jesus Christ. But the power of invisible faith carries us forward one step at a time. It cannot be destroyed because no one can see its form and strike it dead with visible weapons. It cannot be explained, conjured up or reasoned into existence. Our faith in Jesus is a gift from above that arrives like seeds blown in the wind that quietly settle in our hearts when we are looking for Him.

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And when that invisible faith enters in to the secret place of our inner person it begins a work that usually remains unseen for a while. Then the unseen seed silently yet irresistibly grows. From the beginning of our journey God has plans for that seed will in the end be a reflection of His own eternal love. And then we will understand the promise that Jesus told Thomas about when He said, “More blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed.” What an amazing thought that 20 centuries after His death we are offered a greater blessing than Thomas – if only we will believe. We must simply trust  that one day we will know the visible reality of that blessing when we stand in His presence and see with our own eyes the face of Jesus Christ.

The Finish Line

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Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.  Philippians 3:13-14 ESV

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In the middle of this crisis the danger that we as Christians face is to long to go back to that what we considered normal rather than a longing to go forward into the new path that God is opening ahead.

A long time ago I used to be on our school’s track team. While I was never really very good I learned a few valuable tips about how to run a long distance race.

The first thing is to pace ourselves and conserve our strength for the final lap. In the Christian life we are also in a race and we must run with the finish line in our minds. As we are in the heat of this Covid-19 war maybe we should ask ourselves a simple question, “What is God wanting to change in my life and where might He be leading?” As Paul said; in order for us to run well we need to forget what lies behind us. If we are planning and strategizing how to get back to once was we will never be able to set our eyes on where God wants us to go.

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Secondly in order to pace ourselves properly we need to just run our own race. Everyone has a different way of running and we must not try to keep up with what other people are doing. Even though God calls all of us towards His heavenly goal, the way He has designed for each of us to run is unique. Just as Peter talked even when he didn’t know what to say, and Thomas wouldn’t take anyone else’s word for things so we are also all different, but together we form a team.

Last of all Paul encourages us to press towards the goal. The United States and the world at large will never be the same after this Corona virus fades into history. But God’s purpose of bringing men and women to His kingdom remains unchanged. If we waste all of our energy at trying to go back to what once was we will miss the opportunity to discover what might be. So like Paul, let’s keep our eyes fixed on the prize because the finish line is in sight!

Counting the Joy

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Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,
James 1:2 ESV

We had gotten used to Disney being closed and resigned to the fact that even beaches were shut down. That was soon followed by restaurants, my barber shop and finally even our church. But the reality of this verse didn’t kick in for me till yesterday when I discovered that there were no cases of any kind of water at Publix and the clerk didn’t know when it would come in.

Like the surprise of a sunrise streaking across the horizon I suddenly realized that nothing was in my control. It has become popular to say that we are all in this together. But our togetherness is kind of like being in the same waiting room each awaiting our individual surgery. One by one God is operating on our hearts through new and different trials. The good news is that He is not only a Good Shepherd -He is also a great surgeon! We can count the procedure we are facing as joy because we know that in the recovery room He will tell us that the operation was a success!