"Thy Word Have I Hid In Mine Heart..." Psalm 119 : 11

Let us never despair while we have Christ as our leader!

 

We tend to believe what we see. We understand the logic of discerning the existence of ducks. If it looks like, walks like, and quacks like a duck, it must be a duck. Faith, however, adds another dimension. By faith we know things that we cannot see. Faith sees the invisible, but it does not see the nonexistent. By faith we know that whatever God says is real. Our senses may be deceived, but never our faith. One of the greatest lessons faith teaches is that appearance and reality are often not the same.

Although we know that we are to walk by faith and not by sight, sometimes sight dominates and we draw wrong conclusions: 'I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me?' (Psa. 42:9). How many times have our souls become cast down because we interpret what we see as evidence of God's disinterest in us? Having eternity in our hearts and time before our eyes creates tension for us. Psalm 42 portrays this common experience. The inspired poet became depressed when he focussed on his separation from God's house, on the oppression of his enemies, and on the waves of difficult circumstances that billowed over him. Though he knew better, he listened to the taunt, 'Where is thy God?' If appearance was reality, he had every reason to be cast down. But what appeared to be was not the reality. When he focussed on the reality of the Lord and allowed his desire for God to overwhelm him, anxiety gave way to praise. The lovingkindness of the Lord became the life-jacket that preserved him in the rough seas. For the psalmist, faith was the answer to despair. The answer is the same for us. Let us learn to be more overwhelmed with the God we know by faith than we are by the circumstances we see surrounding us.

Daily devotions are from the book "Eagle's Wings" published by the Free Presbyterian Church. © Free Presbyterian Church 1991- All Rights Reserved.