By Sight or By Faith?

            Yesterday I put up a couple of banners for VBS out from the front corner of the church building. I determined the leveling by sight. Have you ever done that? Something looks even… and maybe it’s even close to being even… but it ends up being “off” by just a bit, or by more than you thought. I don’t know about you, but crooked things bother me. Every time I walk by something that was mounted unevenly, I want to go and fix it, but I also don’t feel like tearing up a wall or making a mess. So I either have to grin and bear it or I have to invest the time and energy to change it. I like straight mirrors, paintings, and photos. I would guess that you do too. We must have some built in sense of “evenness”. And when something is off we want to fix… we want to make it right.

            Unless you use a level – a tool designed to help you accurately mount things – you will end up “off” line or off balance… you’ll end up crooked and uneven. Sometimes I am in too much of a hurry and I don’t want to be bothered to go and get my level. I will be tempted to think that my eyesight will be “just as good” as the level. Or I will be tempted to think. “Oh, that’s good enough!... However it ends up will have to do… If it bothers people, they can do it next time…!”

            I’m tempted to do this in my spiritual life as well: “That’s about as good as I can do. God will have to accept it. It’s good enough.” Or I may be tempted to think that I can “sight” the Christian life: “I’ll do it in my own strength. I’ll do it from memory of when I went to Sunday school.” Can you imagine a Sunday school teacher or a youth group leader thinking this way? “I don’t need to study for the lesson or the talk. I’ll tell some jokes, mention God, and tell what I remember of what the Bible says. I don’t need to spend any time praying before we meet. I’ll just ‘wing it’.” That kind of preparation often leads to some pretty crooked and shoddy results. Or what about the Christian who thinks s/he can go day after day after day… into weeks, even, without reading the Word or without spending any significant time with the Lord?

            How well will we face life’s everyday tasks and challenges without knowing and doing the Word? God’s Word is the “level”. It is the means by which the Holy Spirit guides us to be in line with God the Father. It is how we know Him, and it is how we know we are in His will and purpose… it’s how we know we are “straight” in His eyes. It’s the guideline for relationships. Without the Word, a man or woman is only “guessing” at what “straight” is. S/He can never know without this tool. What looks right to us, or okay to us, needs an objective measure to go by. The Bible does this for us. Can you imagine a home built on a foundation that was only “sighted” for what was level? Anyone who has a home wants this part of the house to be perfectly level, so that everything on it ends up “true” and level as well. If a man does not begin with the Word of God (as his foundation), what kind of life will he end up with? It will be unstable and unsure in so very many ways.

            Another leveling tool in my life is my small group: four men who listen, give feedback and encouragement, pray for me, and point me always to the Lord. Our weekly gathering always brings the “level” of God’s presence and plan to my life. It’s a great blessing to have them.

            Are you “winging it” when it comes to following Jesus? What do you honestly think He thinks of that? You can “sight it” - try to figure it all out on your own… you can “try” to live the way Jesus wants… you can “make it up as you go”. Or, you can live by faith… depending daily on the Holy Spirit to apply God’s truth to your life. Let us live in such a way that we believe that His results will always be better than our own.

Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV) ⁵  Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; ⁶  in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

Isaiah 64:6 (KJV) ⁶  But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

Psalm 139:23-24 (NIV) ²³  Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. ²⁴  See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Psalm 127:1 (NIV) ¹  Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain.

PRAYER:  “Lord, be my foundation for life. Show me in Your Word what “level” means in every situation I encounter. And lead me to trust Your standard and not my own. Give me the joy and assurance of a life built on the foundation of Jesus Christ, and let me walk confident in Him. Thank You for Your grace. Thank You for Your mercies which flow anew every morning, setting my feet over and over again on level ground. Thank You that life is not “guesswork” and I can know Christ and know Your Word. I trust You. In Christ’s name I pray, AMEN.”

Jesus Christ is Lord!

Scott