Eyes of Faith

Every couple of years I get a letter to tell me, that I need to make an appointment to get my eyes checked. I was around 12 when I needed my first pair of glasses to help when looking at screens till now when I have to wear every day because I am short sighted.

If you have ever been to an optician, you will know that you will go through a series of tests, to help determine the heath of your eye, from the blind spot test, to puffing air into your eyes to check for pressure, to photos being taking of your eyes.

After all those initial tests you are then given the final sight test. If your like me, when you are asked to take your glasses off to read and it can be a bit of challenge as they ask you to read a line of letters that seems tiny, and your desperately trying to work out whether the letter is an O or a D - and you end of guessing and likely getting it wrong.

But then you put on a pair of ‘cool’ glasses (I use that term very loosely) and they put different lenses in and they ask you to re read the lines of letters and ask you whether things are better, worse or same.

Why do they do this? Because they want to find the correct prescription that will enable you to see more clearly and bring clarity to that which you were struggling to see. I am thankful for my glasses, because without them I would not be able to legally drive my car, I would definitely get headaches and knowing what it’s like when I get up at night half asleep, I am more likely to bash into things. Being able to see where your going is so important.

In the same way as believers we need to be able to see clearly; to see the things that God is wanting to do in us and through us, and to be able to see our world through his eyes. God calls us to have eyes of faith, eyes that are not distracted or blurred by the things of this world, (opinions and actions) but whose eyes are instead focussed on the ‘author and perfecter of our faith.’

The eyes of faith, enable us to see beyond circumstances, they give us hope for a better future, it enables us to be moulded into the person that God wants us to be, it gives us direction so that we might accomplish everything that God has in store for us.

But much like I need to go to the optician to check that my prescription is still doing what it needs to do to allow me to see, we need to be regularly making sure that we are looking through the lens of faith - that gives us assurance for now and unbreakable hope for the future in eternity rather than through the optics of cynicism that come from cultural opinion, peer pressure and fear - that the enemy uses to knock you off track.

In the book of Numbers 13 we find the account of ‘God’s People’ wandering around the desert, when God tells Moses to send out Twelve spies to spy out the land to bring back a report in readiness for them to take the land he had promised to them. Ten came back filled with fear Numbers 13 v 27-28 -  “We went into the land to which you sent us and it flows with milk and honey! Here is it’s fruit’s BUT the people who live there are powerful and the cities are fortified and large." 

But two came back filled with the eyes of faith - Numbers 13 v30 says “Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, we should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.”

What happened? Sadly the Israelites sided with the ten, they allowed their fears to over run them, rather than looking with the eyes of faith and the result was no one entered the promised land…except Joshua and Caleb, the two spies that had the faith to believe that however bad it looked, God would come through for them. They entered the promised land and experienced God’s abundance.

May you and I learn to cultivate eyes of faith that see the possibilities of what God can do rather than looking at the potential pitfalls. 2 Corinthians 4 v 18 “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

Best Wishes - Pastor Steve