Seeing with Spiritual Eyes
By Brittany McKenzie
Follow with me as I share a recent scenario that occurred at the McKenzie household this last week. Three-year-old and two-year-old were arguing over the possession of a book that no one was actually interested in reading, but rather possessing. The two-year-old was the current holder of the prized book, but the three-year-old began his hysterics with a three-year-old-magnitude tantrum. Although I tried reason, insisting that I had power to recover this book, to change its ownership, the three-year-old could not understand in his finite mind, this concept. His mind knew I had more power but his eyes told him otherwise. He suddenly didn’t trust me, he trusted his brother.
The Lord in His kindness revealed to me shortly after this situation how it actually parallels my own heart—how I lose trust in the unseen and take the mortal realm as absolute truth. As scripture puts it, I “exchange the truth of God for a lie, and worship and serve created things rather than the Creator” (Romans 1:25). The great war which exists between the horizontal and vertical. The difference between head knowledge and vision.
God has given us many great and trustworthy promises in the Bible. Promises that we can stake our eternity and our present on. They remind our hearts and minds Who created the Earth; Who has all the power over the waves of the sea and the heavens. He is the one who feeds the birds of the air and knows every hair on my head. Yet, I quickly allow my heart to fret. My eyes see that “have-it-all-together mom” on Facebook and I believe my value is subpar in comparison. I observe the disobedience of my children and quickly believe I have failed as a mother, or better yet in my pride, presume they are terrorists and have no excuse why they should disobey me. I am tempted to serve others and believe God has loved me because of my ‘righteous’ acts of service. The list is never-ending.
All of the seen world speaks lies to me and my discontented heart. We all have a choice daily whether or not to believe its voice. Will I let my heart become troubled and let the cares of this world dictate my emotional stability? Or do I believe in the Great High Priest, sitting at the right hand of God, my true Parent, who has all authority in heaven and on Earth (Hebrews 4:14, Matthew 28:18)? Jesus says in Matthew 24:35, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” We read in Isaiah 40:8, “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.” In layman’s terms, everything our eyes see, including our very lives, are passing away, but the Words of God, the Power of God, the Peace and promises of God, and the mission of God lasts forever. Our Father in heaven is worthy of being trusted, more than any words the world speaks to us. Bringing full circle the recent sermon on Hebrews 1:1, “Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” Therefore, let us fix our eyes on what is unseen, and stand firmly on the word of God, who has the power to change the “possession of the elusive book.”