Walk by Faith Not by Sight

The Christian life is counterintuitive by nature.  This is an extremely challenging idea for modern people.  You believe you have everything you need in you to figure out the big issues in your own life.  You can think through, feel through, or research through any situation if you just try hard enough.  Then Jesus comes along and says “It is not about your conclusions, trust me”.  The Bible calls it walking by faith rather than by sight.  This means putting all of your trust in the promises and plans of God rather than your own.  It can be really hard.  Yet, it is also wonderful.  It opens up a life of blessings and grace that you will never see if you rely on yourself.  You cannot understand the work of God through your own eyesight.  You have to trust God despite the evidence you see.

Think about when something you judge as bad happens in your life – do you really trust God is working at that moment?

People normally break down the things of life into categories.  Something happens and you immediately judge it as good, bad, or neutral.  Getting a raise is always good, right?  Being fired is bad – simple and straightforward.  You judge according to how it affects you, your viewpoint, and your feelings on the issue.  The problem is your perspective on an issue is often lacking.  Just because something seems bad to you does not mean it is bad to God.  It might be the beginning of the path to God’s blessing on you.  He may need to allow ashes in your life to create something beautiful in your life or someone nearby. Beauty from Ashes

Most Christians understand this as a concept.  Yet, when things look really bad from your perspective, you can lose sight of this truth. It is so easy to forget that God works for the good of those who love Him in even the darkest circumstances. He even used spit in someone’s eyes in performing a wonderful miracle recorded in John 9.

God’s Methods are Not Yours

Have you ever had someone spit in your face? It is disgusting, revolting and unsanitary.  If it is intentional, it is so much worse. It is an expression of great personal contempt. No one wants someone else’s spit on them.  The world agrees upon this uniformly.

Yet, Jesus uses his spit in a man’s eyes to do a great miracle in John 9.  Taken outside the context of the Bible, this would be seen as bad.  Jesus does it for a miracle.   He mixes his saliva with clay to make mud in order to free a man from a lifetime of darkness. Jesus then takes that mud and places it on the man’s eyes.

Think about the moment when Jesus put the wet mud on the man’s sightless eyes. What is the guy thinking at that point?

He doesn’t know Jesus according to the passage.  He is not a disciple of Jesus.  He may have never heard of His miracles. The man knows that he has been blind since birth.  All reasonable people would agree it was hopeless…until he has some guy putting mud on his eyes.  What is going through the blind man’s mind?

What would you think if someone put their spit in a dirtball and rubbed it on your eyes?

Disgusting and gross would be the normal response. Thankfully, Jesus is never bound by human opinion. He is never bound by man’s limited understanding.

His Ways are Higher

Jesus works in your life through His methods regardless of your feelings on them. It is His plan formed before the foundation of the earth, after all, does he require your approval of it?

No one would have chosen for Jesus to be born as a baby.  No one expected Him to be a suffering servant.  No one expected the crucifixion at the time.  They judged Jesus a failed Messiah after His death.  Obviously, they were monumentally wrong.  That does not negate the greatness of Jesus’ works.  For more on this read Why Should Christians Read the Old Testament

There are going to be times on your walk when you are left like the blind man just after meeting Jesus. It will seem like there is no hope.  Things are just too dark and too far gone.  Then someone or thing comes along and puts spit and mud on your eyes.  It may be something like ending a relationship that you really wanted to work out. It may be losing a job that provided what you thought was security. It seems at the time to be clearly a bad thing.

Yet, if you continue trusting God you eyes may be opened to the beautiful work that God is doing through the pain. That job may have been enslaving you.  That relationship would have lead you to spiritual ruin.

His Ways are Better

It comes down to simple questions for you.  Whose sight do you trust when faced with God working in a challenging way? Whose plan and expectations are better?

Will you live by your roadmap for this life of God’s perfect plan?

Walk by faith and not by sight says the Lord. Are you willing to do this when your sight tells you things are scary, hopeless, and lost?  God says He will bless you.  Do you believe it?

The man born blind says nothing to Jesus as He is healing him.  The man follows Jesus’ directions and waits and sees what happens as a result.  It is a simple plan for life but it makes sense if you think about it.

Jesus is God.  Jesus loves you.  Jesus knows the plans He has for you.  Do you trust Him to lead?