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For we walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7, ESV).
We say the Christian faith. It’s not the Christian sight. What’s the difference?
It means that we don’t have to depend on what we can see but on what we can’t see — God — for our salvation, for growing in Christ, and for walking in the power of the Spirit.
This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life” (Romans 1:17, NLT).
I appreciate the New Living Translation saying, “This Good News,” as the bad news alternative would be trying to get things right through our own effort, intelligence, and resources. People have said to me, “Have a little faith,” during difficulties, as if faith in myself could accomplish anything. Fortunately, we can have a little faith in the supernatural Creator of the universe.
Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation (Hebrews 11:2).
The “Faith Hall of Fame” is found in Hebrews 11, listing 13 specific people (Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Gideon, Barak, Samson, and Jephthah) who all performed heroic acts of faith in God.
Also in Hebrews 11, we find two helpful verses for understanding and growing in the faith of those who have gone before us.
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen (v. 1).
And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him (v. 6).
Our faith unleashes the power of God. The question that has always been in my soul when considering faith is, “How do I grow in faith?” I recently came across a quote about increasing faith from a sermon I preached decades ago …
Throughout the epic stories of Scripture, we find people encountering a God who wants to redeem them, who works to find a way to regard them as righteous. Scripture explains that God chooses to honor our faith as His righteousness, as His strength, and as His power.
This is the perspective that rescues us. God narrows His gaze and looks only at our faith, not our countless errors and chronic mistakes, focusing with holy intensity on some gesture rather than the vast sickness within. Faith is only a gesture, but it becomes a handle God uses in snatching us out of our fate.
Wow! God narrows His gaze! He doesn’t get caught up in our self-condemnation, our doubts, our rebellion, or bad attitudes, as His Spirit keeps challenging us to look up and have a little faith in Almighty God.
Amen.