We Walk By Faith

August 15

Job 8-10

Psalm 91:9-16

Proverbs 20:16-18

2 Corinthians 5:1-15

We Walk By Faith

“Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord--for we walk by faith, not by sight—we are of good courage and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.  Therefore, we also have as our ambition whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.”  2 Corinthians 5:6-9  LSB

Paul expressed this sentiment several times during his ministry.  “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”  Philippians 1:21 LSB  He had come to a point in his life where he was completely surrendered to the Lord.  He recognized that he would be better off in heaven with Jesus than here on earth experiencing the persecution and difficulties that resulted from his ministry.  But he also recognized that he still had work to do and so as long as he was still here, he was going to keep working and doing what God had called him to do.  Most of us will never face the persecution Paul had to endure.  He was beaten, shipwrecked, stoned, imprisoned, starved, had many sleepless nights, cold, without enough clothing, etc. (2 Corinthians 11:23-28)  It is understandable that Paul would have the perspective that life in heaven would be far better than life here on earth.  What is more incredible is that he didn’t give up.  He purposed to continue serving God until his last breath.  He could have hidden, kept quiet and probably lived the rest of his life in obscurity, but he knew that was not God’s plan for him.  His ambition was to please God.  Whether he was dead or alive, he wanted to please God with everything he did.  So he chose to walk by faith and not by sight.  He decided that he would do what God called him to do and to pursue it with all of his might for as long as he was able. 

In 21^st century Western civilization, we have it pretty good.  We are not persecuted for our faith (at least not yet).  It is hard to long for heaven when we’ve never been there and aren’t exactly sure what it’s going to be like.  Even if things in our life aren’t great, they are familiar and comfortable.  We don’t want to miss out on anything so we prefer to just keep things the way they are.  In our minds, we know that heaven is going to be better.  When a loved one dies, we know they are better off where they are, but we still wish they were here with us.  I think the lesson for us in Paul’s words is not that we should wish we were in heaven with Jesus, but rather that as long as we are here our goal should be to please God and serve Him.  If we are alive, we have purpose.  God can use us.  As our health fails and our bodies decay, it may be more difficult to serve, but we can pray for others, we can encourage other believers, we can mentor, disciple and teach those younger in the faith.  If we are willing and available, God will use us.  Walking by faith and not by sight allows us to live beyond our circumstances and puts us in a position to be used in ways we can’t even imagine for His glory all the days of our lives.