Start-up by Faith and Not by Sight
We walk through the wake of 2021 expecting it to be a time to renew our plans and rebuild what 2020 shattered, but being well into the second month of 2021 many of us still feel trapped and paralyzed, maybe even disoriented and lost in the aftermath of the pandemic that hasn’t even ended yet. Maybe for some of us, circumstances have gotten worse and the glimmer of hope that led us to face the year with fresh courage faded into dim. Maybe disappointment after disappointment and failure after failure dimmed our spiritual eyesight to an extent that we can no longer see the hope for us to move forward.
Dim days
You find that in the depths of our hearts we search for the Hope to get us to start and thrive again. It is through the dim and dark days that the search for the Light grows fervently. It is through these days that the Light shall prove to be real even while it is hidden behind the dark clouds of fear, doubt, and anxiety. It is in these times that we are left to fix our eyes, in trust and surrender, to the Truth.
By faith and not by sight
For we live by faith, not by sight. (2 Corinthians 5:7)
How do we thrive on dim days?
We live by faith. We shift our focus away from what our senses and emotions can perceive and feel.
A helmsman of a ship traveling through the sea in a disorienting storm knows that the best way to live through the storm is to trust what the cockpit instruments are signaling, and never his perception of the storm.
We, as the helmsman trusting the ship’s cockpit instruments, should trust not our perception of reality but the Truth, Jesus. We should break free from our misplaced trust in ourselves, never to fix our eyes even on our own “faith” BUT on the object, the author, and the perfecter of our faith that is Christ. We can start-up and thrive by faith because Christ endured the darkest day of history for the joy the was set before him. (Hebrews 12:2)
Don’t wait for the storm to calm
The suffering and death Christ endured on the cross purchased for us our greatest joy, our enduring comfort even in pain and difficulty, and the promise that in Him even the worst things will turn out for good.(Romans 8:28)
Don’t wait for the storm to calm before you start-up in faith. The time to trust and put our faith in Christ and what He has spoken in His word is NOW. To live by faith and not by sight is to fix our eyes on Jesus. The time to thrive in Christ is now, for it is in our stormiest and darkest season that we see the light of His goodness break forth.