Day 06

“Faith—Not Emotion”

“For we walk by faith, not by sight.” (2 Corinthians 5:7 NKJV)

FOR A WHILE, we are fully aware of Jesus’ concern for us. But then, when He begins to use us in His work, we begin to adopt an emotional, pitiful, beggarly appearance and talk only of our trials and difficulties. And all the while Jesus is attempting to finish His work through us as His hidden people who are not in the spotlight. It’s true, none of us would be hidden spiritually if we could help it. Most are tempted with a desire for the spotlight. Can we do our work when it seems that God has sealed up heaven? The greater majority of professing Christians want to be brightly illuminated saints with golden halos and with the continual glow of inspiration, and to have other followers of Jesus dealing with and serving the people in their daily lives. A self-assured Christian is of no value to Jesus. He is undesirable, unsuitable for daily life, and completely unlike Jesus. We are here, not as immature angels, but as men and women, to allow Jesus to finish His work through us in this world. And we are to do it with an infinitely greater power to withstand the struggle because we have been born from above. If we continually try to bring back those phenomenal moments of inspiration, it is a sign that it is not Jesus we want. We are becoming obsessed with the moments when Jesus did come and speak with us, and we are insisting that He do it again. But what He wants us to do is demonstrate our trust in Him and “walk by faith.” How often do we pause in our faith walk as if to say, “I cannot do anything else until God appears to me”? He will never allow us to hold Him hostage to His Will being done. We will have to get up on our own, without any inspiration and without any sudden touch from His Spirit. Then to our amazement, we find ourselves declaring, “Why, He was there all the time, and I never knew it!” Never live for those phenomenal moments of inspiration—they are meant to be ongoing heavenly surprises from the Holy Spirit. He will give us His touches of inspiration only when He sees that we are not in danger of being led away by them. We must never consider our moments of inspiration as the standard way of life—our availability for Him to finish His work through us is our standard.