By: John Mitchell
“For we walk by faith, not by sight.” (2nd Corinthians 5:7) What does the Bible say about faith? “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1). Now, what about walking by sight? There is an old saying, “Seeing is believing.” What does the Bible say about believing in what you see? “…hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees” (Romans 8:24b)? It takes no faith to believe for what you already have. Faith is believing you will have something, that you now don’t have, or something will happen that is not happening now, all according to the will of God for you. Walking in faith means that in your daily life you set your mind on believing, and obeying the word of God. To have this mindset, we need to daily read, study, and meditate on the word of God. Next, we must choose to believe in, and obey God’s word in all of our daily life. Then, we are abiding in God’s word, because it has become part of our life. Now, we are daily being faithful to God, therefore we are walking by faith. Walking by faith is doing things God’s way. Walking by sight is doing things our way. Here is an example of walking by sight, and by faith. One of the questions an employment application will ask is, “Have you ever been fired from an employment?” I think to myself, “If I answer ‘yes,’ I won’t get this job, and I really want this job.” Then, wrongfully, I tell myself, “This answer doesn’t matter, because they will never know that I was fired one time, years ago.” So, I decide to lie and write NO for the answer. That’s walking by sight, doing things my way, by trusting in me, to know what is best for me. To walk by faith, I would be honest and not lie. I would answer, “Yes, I will explain in my interview.” That is doing things God’s way. Then I would pray and trust God, for His will to be done in this situation. If I got the job, it was God’s will; if I didn’t get the job, it wasn’t God’s will for me, at that time. Let’s go a step further. Someone else gets the job. I think to myself, “I am better qualified for that job than he is. I don’t understand why God didn’t give it to me?” It’s not a matter of understanding. It’s a matter of trusting in God, to know what is best for us. To show God that He can’t trust us, we have to submit to, accept, agree with, and obey His will for us. You don’t have to understand everything about God before you can believe and trust in God. Everyday we, in faith, believe in, trust in, and depend on things that we do not understand. When we turn on a light switch in our house, do we fully understand how electricity is produced at the power plant, and how it is sent from there to our light bulb? When our light bulb burns out, we just buy a new one. We don’t say, “I can’t use this light bulb until I fully understand how it works.” Most people don’t fully understand how an automobile engine starts and runs, or how a transmission transfers the engine power to the wheels. We just turn the ignition key to start the engine, put the transmission lever into the drive gear position, and we drive on down the road, without any thoughts about first having to understand how it works before we can use it. We daily use the smart phone, computer, radio, and TV, believing and trusting that they will work for us, without understanding of how they work. Another example, would be the story of the 12 spies. “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel; from each tribe of their fathers, you shall send a man, everyone a leader among them’” (Numbers 13:1-2). On their return, 10 of the spies gave a bad report, full of doubt and fear, that they would not be able to defeat the enemy. They even said about the enemy, “…we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight” (Numbers 13:33b). That is walking by sight! After hearing this, the multitude of people were filled with doubt and fear. “Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, ‘Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it’” (Numbers 13:30). Joshua said, “If the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land which flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the Lord, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their protection has departed from them, and the Lord is with us. Do not fear them” (Numbers 14:8-9). Caleb and Joshua were walking by faith, believing and trusting in God. The other 10, and the multitude, did not believe they could trust God to give them the victory, by enabling them to defeat their enemy. When we walk by sight, doubt and fear destroys our faith. “But without faith it is impossible to please Him…” (Hebrews 11:6a). It’s not a matter of, can we trust God, it’s a matter of can God trust us! God could not trust the 10 spies, so they, and everyone from 20 years of age and up, except for Caleb and Joshua, never entered Canaan. They all died in the wilderness during the next 40 years (Numbers 14:29-38). Some people say, “I just want to know the bottom line about all of this walking by faith and trusting God stuff.” Here’s the bottom line. When a person says that they know what is best for them, they are saying that they know better than God, what is best for them. More bluntly said, they think that they are smarter than God. If one doesn’t believe the Bible, or trust God, please think about this; Jesus proved many times who He was. “And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which were not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:30-31). More proof of the divinity of Jesus is that Jesus was resurrected from His death. Also, after His resurrection, He was seen by many people. “After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at one…” (1st Corinthians 15:6). The historians of that time wrote about the miracles, which were done by Jesus, and about His life, death, and resurrection. There is abundant proof about the existence of God, and Jesus, the Son, in the Bible, and in history, and in the complexity of the world around us. “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork” (Psalm 19:1, see also Romans 1:20). It just doesn’t make any sense at all, to not live a faith filled life obeying God, and walking by faith! When our life here on earth is at its end, we can only say one of two things: I DID IT MY WAY—OR—I DID IT GOD’S WAY. It is of great benefit to us, to live a life of submitting to God’s will for us and to always walk by faith.