Seeing the Invisible

Today’s Bible Reading:  Isaiah 19-21; Hebrews 11

Journal Entry on a passage from today’s reading:

Topic: Faith

SCRIPTURE:  Hebrews 11:1

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. (Heb 11:1 NIV)

OBSERVATION:

Faith—being certain of things that are as yet invisible to us, things that haven’t come to fruition yet or things that are intangible. In this sense, faith is the God-given ability to see the invisible. The New Living Translation Bible renders the verse this way:  

Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.

APPLICATION:

Often we only see at a subjective and personal level the circumstances that appear to be against us—in our family, our health, our business, our community, our nation, our church. Sometimes, it is hard to see how we will ever get through it. Yet despite the reality of those things that poison the atmosphere surrounding our lives, our convictions as believers are not to be restricted by them, nor are our sensitivities to be dulled to what’s going on around us. 

In a way, we are not to acknowledge the evil and opposition that is all around us, in the sense of not letting it restrict our living in and for our Lord. Yet, at the same time, we are not to be blind to it either, to where we don’t see it or can’t recognize it to oppose it and take authority over it in our prayers and our actions in Jesus’ name.

PRAYER:

Lord, thank You for the measure of faith You have given me. Thank you for the reality of Your love and my relationship with You that, though it is beyond physical eyesight, is undeniably real and known to me. So often I hear people say that they cannot believe anything they cannot see. By Your Spirit enlighten them to realize that such a statement is patently false. Everyone in the human family certainly has believed in the reality of something they have not seen—the love of a parent, the pain of a betrayal, the hope of a future. Help people to see that a relationship with You will be more real than any of these.  

In Jesus’ name. Amen.  –AP