Monday February 12, 2024
Believe It!
By Jenny Pfister
I believe in a ram in place of a son, a scarlet thread of salvation, a whale as a means of transportation, a fourth man in a fire, divine protection from lions, a burning bush, a still small voice, walking on water, the blind seeing, the deaf hearing, the lame walking, the parting of a sea, an ark, a cross…and I believe in a resurrection!
I believe it all! Yet I’ve never seen any of it with my natural eyes. How can that be? How can I believe in something I have never seen? It’s a struggle, perhaps even a battle most of us face. Oh, it may seem easy to believe Jonah was in a whale, but believing I am healed when my body is in pain can be a whole other story. But that is exactly what Jesus wants us to do…see with our spirit eyes.
Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” So he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!” Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.” And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (Jn.20:24-29)
Perhaps that is why the psalmist asks God to “open the eyes that I may behold wondrous things…” (Ps.119:18). And why Paul prayed that the “eyes of our heart may be enlightened.” (Eph.1:18).
I know things like gravity, wind/air/oxygen, sound, heat, and electricity really do exist. I believe they are real…but I can’t see them at all. I can see the evidence of them though. And that’s enough to make me a believer in them. So why is it so hard to simply believe the things of God that we cannot see with our natural eyes? Just that…we are trying to see with our physical eyes. (See WORD WISDOM for a deeper study of believe)
Hebrews 11:1 tells us that faith is “being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” The footstep followers of Christ are a faith class, and during this present age they are spoken of as the “household of faith.” (Gal. 6:10), and a cloud of witnesses (Heb.12:1). They are those who believed without seeing because they walked “by faith, not by sight.” (2 Cor. 5:7).
So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever. (2 Cor.4:18 NLT)
Godly faith believes in what I do not see. God pointed out that I do not see God, but I believe, I do not see Christ, but I believe. I do not see the Holy Spirit, but I believe. Why? Because I do see evidence around me of God, and as I get to know Him, I have the evidence of God’s interaction with me. I do not see the healing that Christ has paid for, but I believe because of the evidence of the Word of God. The healing may be immediate or delayed.
Faith is not denying reality…rather it understands that God can change reality. Faith is not blind belief but is based on the certainty of God’s Word. If we break our leg, we do not claim it is healed when the reality is that it is broken. However, we can claim that Christ died for our healing. We can claim that God’s mighty power is working in our body to heal it. We can claim that we are healed in the name of Jesus, believing by faith that it is what He is doing. And we can look into the future, and thank God now for healing us, believing that he will heal us in His perfect timing.
Do you believe in the healing you cannot see? The children who are not yet saved? A restored and fruitful marriage? Provision not yet here? The promise yet to be fulfilled? Do you see it?
As it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations” in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did (Rom.4:17 NKJV)
