SEEKING THE INVISIBLE
During covid in 2020, we learned that an invisible virus was taking so many to their eternity. We cleaned off everything that came into our homes: the mail, groceries and even taking off our shoes before entering the house. My son, who lives with me, had to work during that time, as he was a necessary worker. When he got home I would Lysol everything he touched. I sprayed doorknobs, outside of washing machine handles, handles on the refrigerator and stove. (The Lysol caused my refrigerator door handles to turn yellow and they are still yellow to this day.) We did not want any invisible force in the form of a virus getting in and causing us to get sick, go into the hospital, never to get out alive. We were seeking to protect ourselves from the unknown germ that was invisible and causing the very breath to be sucked out of our chest.
As time progressed, and much study done seeking answers, we have learned more about this invisible virus. Recently there have been several families at church who have tested positive for covid. My dad tested positive for covid. Fear ran through my mind and heart. A few weeks before, I had taken my dad to get the latest vaccine. He lives in an assisted living center and they told him there, that if he had not had that shot his symptoms would have been much worse. He is improving every day and they are taking great care of him there. Also, members of church are improving day by day. I just went today and got the newest covid vaccine. We know now what will protect us from getting or at least not having, this invisible virus to the degree of death. Thank you, God for scientists who can learn how to treat us! They have the God given knowledge how to seek the invisible virus and get it under control.
Just like the scientists are seeking for an answer to protect us, we should be seeking after the cure for our sinfulness, who or what will keep us safe-protected. 2 Corinthians 5:7 says “We walk by faith, not by sight.” 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 “…do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction which is but for a moment is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” Faith is not a tangible thing we can put into our hands and actually see or feel. We know that the 11th chapter of Hebrews, is full of examples of faithful people thru history. The chapter starts with these words “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Faith means we cannot see the outcome. We are not sure what lies ahead. Faith also means, that we do not know what the future holds, but we do know Who holds the future! Faith means clinging to the hope that God will triumph. He will come back to earth in judgment, to reward those who have sought after Him, thru obedience, and take those faithful to live with Him eternally. Those who don’t have faith in God, can only see the physical-what is in front of them-what they can actually touch. After Jesus’ resurrection, in John 20, Thomas would not believe that Jesus was among them. Jesus told him to “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believe…Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed…these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.”
But is faith really invisible, to and in a believer? Did you know that our faith is not brought visible, until we go thru a trial and must seek it and lean into that faith and those promises given by our God! The unbelieving world, who are not even seeking the invisible faith, can see faith in our actions-how we react to a situation-what comes out of our mouths-how we reach out in prayer and patience in the storm, even when no end is in sight. James:14-17 reads “What does it profit my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,’ but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body what does it profit? Thus, also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” The reality is that if you have faith, works will naturally be a product. True faith and righteous works go hand in hand. The world does not have to seek your faith, because they see the works you are doing in your everyday life. Then, faith is not invisible.
Those who do not have faith cannot see past the physical world around them. They are limited by their temporal circumstances and are blind to what God is doing. But those who open their spiritual eyes can see the spiritual realities which transcend this world. Their hope is in God’s strength and in His faithfulness. In that hope they find the strength to endure. Read Colossians 1. This beautiful chapter tells us Jesus “…in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins…He is the image of the invisible God…” It is with and through Jesus that we can see the very image of the invisible God!
If the faithless would just look around them, they would see God at work. Romans 1:20 reads “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and God head…” How can a faithless person, watch a sunrise or sunset over the wide ocean, or a newborn baby, or the seasons which are the same every year, and not believe in the existence of a seemingly, invisible God. God is in every day-in every second-in every blink of the eye. We just have to open our eyes!
Mankind needs to stop seeking the invisible and realize that God is right in front of us-right beside us-right behind us. Mankind needs to stop their busyness and rest in the reality that there is a God and He is ever present. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.” Hebrews 13:8. God never changes. He is our protector. Seek Him and you will find Him! Just as in the invisible covid virus, which was visible after all, by the aftermath it left as it spread; have faith in the ever-visible God and let your life shine brightly for Him! The world will see your faith in action and they will no longer need to seek the invisible because they have found our very visible God! I want to close with these verses from Deuteronomy 4:28-31. Moses was talking to the people of Israel before they crossed over to the promised land. “And there you will serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in distress and all these things cone upon you in the latter days, when you turn to the Lord your God and obey His voice (for the Lord your God is a merciful God), He will not forsake you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them.”
Till next time! Keela