walking by faith

When we live by sight and not by faith, it's so easy to be deceived. We trust our eyes, but why?

When I was a freshman, I saw only what my eyes showed me - and I was guided by principles that were purely tangible and visible. I saw the externals of what church was like, what Christian life was like, and I attempted so hard to emulate it.

But to live by faith, to see that there is a deeper battle raging and a fuller life waiting below the surface never crossed my mind... or my heart, for that matter.

The truth is, you can never determine by what someone does who they actually are in their hearts. I wonder sometimes what happens with all these pastors who we find were closet pornography addicts or child molesters or atheists... and they had served their church faithfully all those 40 years. I know this is true by experience, because I perhaps spent at least a year (perhaps longer), showing up to church, not knowing why I was there, never having my heart in it, and just learning how to imitate the deeds.

The hard part is - if we loved God, we would undoubtedly show it.

"In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead."
- James 2:17

Unfortunately, that doesn't mean that someone who doesn't love God can't perform actions. I could lack even a smidgen of love for God but still pray, still read my Bible, still serve people, still go to church faithfully, still look cheerful, still look carefree, while all the while tied up inside and never having my heart in it. So you know, it's really dangerous to gauge someone's faith by how many things they do. It's self-deceiving, too, in my case...

But what I guess I'm saying is that if I am to walk by faith, I need to drop the thought that the deeds will save me and that those deeds will show the world I have faith. I just need to know I am justified because Christ shed His blood and rose again from the dead for me... and no amount of works nor any effort could change my heart - God alone will soften my heart - and faith alone allows me to accept Christ.

"I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh."
- Ezekiel 36:26

To walk by faith and not by sight sometimes means to stop looking for outward signs of genuine faith and realize that I could never fully know... but I can only trust.

That, to me, is much more beautiful than the tangible - some formula for knowing God.