5-8-2022

 Good Morning All!

     Hebrews 11:1; “To have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for, to be certain of the things we cannot see.”

    I have always been a “people observer.” I especially like to watch my sons interact with their children. Occasionally, I watch and giggle a little as natural events occur like a child’s propensity to “why?”  At first, it will be cute and funny; it won’t take long to become exasperating. From long explanations turning to “because I said so,” moms and dads get flustered after about the sixth or seventh “why?”

    The thing is, for children, this is a sign of two things; first is their natural inquisitiveness and secondly, they believe that their parents know everything. It is usually when mom and dad realize they don’t know everything that the frustrations kick in. We all did this but as we got older, we began to ask why because we were skeptical, and we doubt what we hear. This is part of our sinful nature.

    First, we are by nature inquisitive, just like any child but as we get older our questions get harder for us to decipher. This is because of our sinful nature which clouds things for us. In our imperfect state, creation is a mystery to us. We no longer understand it as we were designed to; sin clouds our vision.

    This is because in our sinful state we have replaced love with selfishness; we have replaced respect with arrogance; we have replaced love with hate, and we have replaced trust with doubt. All of this clouds our vision like a foggy morning makes driving to work difficult so do these selfish and foolish choices. We listen to the devil who tells us to “prove it” to our own vain notions while God tells us to “believe it” and to trust in his promise.

    We struggle much because we see faith and reason as opposing each other. In reality faith can be in opposition to sight. What we see with our sin infected eyes and arrogant selfishness leads us to “see” what we want to see and to cling to what we think we want to cling to. The devil says “see it” but then deceives and clouds our vision. God says have faith, believe it. That is what we ultimately have and that is faith.

     There will be times when the doubts will seem to outweigh the faith, but God is there to support us, to build us up, to reinvigorate us. Life is a challenge, but God gives us the tools to battle life. He gives us faith, hope and love. He gives us comfort, consolation, and a voice that he listens to when we call upon his Name. We need to trust in God’s grace to sustain us. We need to have faith- the desire to cling to God’s Promise with all we have, especially because that is all we have.

Gracious Father, our eyes often deceive us. We foolishly place our confidence in our own doing. Give us the strength to see you through our eyes of faith and to trust in your promise. Help us to cling to you in all that we do. In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret