There is a phrase in the bible: we walk by faith, not by sight. It’s a phrase that comes to me from time to time – when it’s dark and I’m finding my way to a specific room in the house, walking a route I’ve walked most of my life, or when I’m carrying too much and can’t really see where I’m putting my feet. There I go again, walking by faith not by sight. I took it very literally, interpreting it to mean that I knew the way so well I didn’t need my eyes. In the faith setting, knowing what to do and not letting myself get distracted by what my eyes could see.
Recently though, I’ve found myself pondering on a deeper level. Walk by faith and not by sight doesn’t really mean knowing the way. In fact, it’s almost the complete opposite. Knowing the way without light is walking by memory. Walking by faith is not knowing the way but going anyway.
Maybe it’s quite simply that, not knowing where we are going but choosing to trust God to open the right doors, knowing that eventually we will be where we are meant to be, with him in heaven. That is a fair interpretation that covers most of our life. But it can also be used in specific circumstances. Maybe something you are going through is painful and actually looking ahead it looks bleak, like a never ending tunnel, not even a glimpse of light ahead. But you’ve been told it gets better. You’ve been told it will help in the long run. So you keep going, you keep pushing through without needing to see the light. You choose to believe the light is there, you choose to believe it will get better.
Walking by faith is choosing to keep going even when you can’t see what’s ahead. It’s choosing to trust that the path you are on is God’s path, or at least that God will direct you back onto his path if you’ve wandered away. It’s choosing to hope that whatever hardship, whatever struggle, whatever pain you are experiencing now, it won’t last forever and there’s something better waiting.
I wonder if Jesus ever felt like that? When he was being tempted in the desert and he could have made things easier for himself, taken away the trial but he chose to trust God. Walking by faith?
Or as he journeyed to Jerusalem for the final time knowing he had to die. Walking by faith?
Or as he sat in the garden praying then let himself be arrested and put on trial without fighting back, without speaking up for himself. Walking by faith?
God has a plan that is bigger than what we are walking through. Jesus suffered. Then he rose triumphant. Whatever you are walking through, however dark it might seem to your eyes, remember your God rolled the stone away and rose from the grave. Walk on, keep believing.
Walk by faith.
The Reason for my Hope Blog 