LIVE BEYOND WHAT THE EYES COULD POSSIBLY SEE

Taking a close look, you'll agree with me that the beginning of anything, whether good or bad is always accompanied by some level of anxiety. To an extent, this is not in any way different when we're talking about the New Year. Funny enough, although people seem optimistic with amazing business plans, career goals, and life resolutions; the truth is that in actuality majority of these people in their inner minds are skeptical about what the year has in-stock for them.

Personally, if you ask me I'd say it's entirely normal. As a matter of fact, planning is indeed easy, but the real deal has always been the actualization of these plans. However, I'm not saying that wallowing in anxiety should be an option; definitely it's not. Having said that, I'd love to pinpoint the fact that anxiety comes as a result of depending exclusively on our sense organ (specifically the eye, which is responsible for sight), rather than believing in God. The truth is that when individuals evaluate themselves, probably starting with their financial status, level of connection, and the outcome of previous plans; these sometimes triggers anxiety especially in situations where the corresponding results were devoid of any form of positivity.

But that notwithstanding, in 2 Corinthians 5:7 the scripture admonish Christians that instead of their sight acting as the determining factor for their existence, they should rather live a life of faith. Let us bring this closer to ourselves. Well, it might interest you to know that the term 'sight' in this context has nothing to do with its literal meaning. The 'sight' we're discussing here is much of a mental perception. You'll agree with me that the human mental perception is basically clouded with doubts, and unfortunately faith can never exist where doubt abound. For the sake of clarity, all I'm trying to say is that to exercise faith, one must let go of doubts emanating from what they see.

Human effort didn't pull down the walls of Jericho; Faith did...

Funnily enough, most times people tend to believe that the successes they've recorded is directly proportional to their hard work. For this reason, anytime they encounter disappointment or failure, they somehow feel that they didn't give it their best shot. On the contrary, a critical look might even show that their effort was good enough but still couldn't produce any tangible result. Honestly, if you've ever gotten to this wretched point in life, you shouldn't panic. It's time to acknowledge the fact that human efforts have limitation as shown in Psalm 127:1

Unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain. (NIV)

In Joshua 6:1-20; after the death of Moses, the mantle of leadership rested on Joshua and his primary assignment was to lead the children of Israel to the Promised Land. Aside from River Jordan which the Lord dried up for them, another obstacle was the walls that surrounded the great city called Jericho. Since the children of Israel were potential threat to most of the nations, the king of Jericho thought that the only way to save his people was to shut the city's gate against the Israelites. From several research studies, it's believed that the walls were actually impenetrable. Well, no matter the human effort that would have been used, the King and citizens of Jericho knew that it would have yielded little or no results. However, what they forgot was that the God of Israel was a God of impossibilities.

With that being said, let me add that Joshua and the children of Israel at that time didn't depend solely on what they could see. I'm sure if they did, they wouldn't have obeyed the instructions that came from God. Now, lets analyze this using our mental perception. How will a wall as big as that of Jericho fall down flat just by mere walking around it silently for 6 days and then shouting on the 7th day?. It sounds irrational right?. The truth is that faith most times seems like a display of foolishness when individuals try analyzing it. Yet, the end result is always astonishing like what happened in Joshua 6:20

The priests blew the trumpets. When the people heard the blast of the trumpets, they gave a thunderclap shout. The wall fell at once. The people rushed straight into the city and took it. (MSG)

When all hope is lost, all you have to do is to keep moving in faith.

One of the major disadvantages of evaluating the future from what can be seen is that you'll likely visualize your inabilities more than anything else. Regrettably, once this happens, the next thing that'll take place is that such a person will be lost in a life full of self-pity. Sincerely speaking, despite the storm, as long as one is living a life of faith, he or she can never drown. You should probably learn a lesson from Apostle Peter in Matthew 14:28-31

Then Peter called to him, “Lord, if it’s really you, tell me to come to you, walking on the water.” “Yes, come,” Jesus said. So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. But when he saw the strong wind and the waves, he was terrified and began to sink. “Save me, Lord!” he shouted. Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed him. “You have so little faith,” Jesus said. “Why did you doubt me?” (NLT)

From the scripture above, I'd like to pinpoint that 'living in faith means completely trusting on Jesus'. As a matter of fact, if Peter didn't take his focus off the master (Jesus Christ), I'm certain he would have walked all the way through on the sea without sinking. But since he was human like us, his mental perception caused him to sink.

In 2019, I pray that God endow each and every one of us with the grace to ignore what we see while living a life of faith in Jesus name, Amen!

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