Motivated by His Love
"For we walk by faith, not by sight."
2 Corinthians 5:7
In my most recent time of reflection God transformed the way that I view 2 Corinthians 5:7. He opened my eyes to the reality that even though I say I have strong faith, I still walk by sight. To me walking by sight simply means, making choices that you believe are going to provide you with what you want and with things that you believe will make you most happy.
Before my recent move to Ohio, I spent the last year believing that I needed a certain job, apartment, environment, and group of friends to be joyful. After months of trying to envision how everything I needed was going to be available for me in Ohio, I made the move when my checklist had everything marked off.
With just about 3 months into my new life here, I realized that nothing truly changed. All of the stress planning that I thought I needed to do to find safety and protection never even happened. Everything that I thought I saw here that would make me joyful didn't.
The places I thought I'd go, the people I thought I'd meet, the routine I thought I'd have, none of it really played out how I saw it in my head. I thought that I needed to see what everything was going to look like to be happy, but turns out I really didn't. All I needed was faith that trusted that everyday God is and was out for my good. Even on the days that looked bad to the eye, God reminded me that faith on the bad days meant he was still working for my good.
Reminder: God tests us, teaches us, disciplines us, equips us, and trains us. Often times he does this through the ups and downs of life. When we get everything we want, have no struggles, get everything we need from the World, we are not allowing God to renew us and make us more like him.
God promises to provide us with everything we need. Quite frankly, life never looks how we imagine it to look so we need to learn how to surrender control and walk into the newness of life fully trusting that God is FOR us even if things look rough.
CHALLENGE:
-Ask yourself what you believe you need to see in your life to feel safe, protected, and loved?
-Ask yourself what you are scared of losing if you don't constantly stress over how it is going to happen?
"Lord you are PRAISEWORTHY. Lord forgive us for not believing that you are good when we cannot possibly see how you are going to work things out for us. Lord it is so hard to walk by faith, but today we ask that you would help us surrender control. We have seen time and time again how even when we try to be in control life hits us and our plans fail. Lord in the midst of uncertainty, help us remember that you are CERTAIN. You do not forget about us, stray away from us, put us through difficult seasons because you hate us. Lord you are for us. So help us receive whatever is in front of us to day for all that it has to offer us. Lord your kingdom is not of this World, so help us not derive our satisfaction from the things that we can see. Remind us that they are fleeting and changing. Help us understand the power in running to you as our unshakeable source. Amen."