.: not only as it seems :.

The journey of faith is one in which we are called to stay focused upon what we would not naturally be compelled to consider. What we are subtlety convinced that we either need or need to escape from soon becomes our driving force in life. Before we know it, we are listening to every voice other than the voice of God. This world has a way of dictating for us what specific desires or fears will be our guide and master. Truth be told, we as His children are all in process and are learning to discern His directing in our lives (John 10:27; Phil 1:6). But so often in the New Testament, we hear clear admonitions concerning what is to be the intentional focus of our hearts and minds. In 2 Corinthians 4, the Apostle Paul highlights this dynamic; “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (v.18). Realizing the “trials along the trail” that those first Christians were facing, he reminds them of what so many of us today need to acknowledge as well: things are not only as they seem. That is to say, there is more to reality than we can know with our unaided intellect and emotions. Apart from the work of the Spirit of God, we would fail to find hope and encouragement in the fact that there is an invisible God who is very big, very powerful, very wise, and very good. That is why David could not help but burst into his song of praise in Psalm 145, proclaiming, “Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; His greatness no one can fathom” (v.3). David was keenly aware of a fact that seems to slip our minds on a daily basis; that there is never a time when the Creator of this universe is not on the throne (Psalm 47:7-9). Therefore we need not fear what everyone else fears, for God is at work in this world to a degree far beyond what our visual circumstances would have us to believe. Even so, the most accurate viewpoint comes when we turn our eyes away from our ever-changing circumstances, and place them firmly upon both God and His Word. Only then do we see most clearly!