Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Some Things Look Better When Your Eyes Are Closed

Before we had the Internet and email I used to write letters to people or send postcards. Although I still send postcards to people from time to time most of my letter writing days are behind me now. When I did write letters, and sometimes when I wrote a postcard, I would end with my name and sometimes with a little smiling face next to my name. But, the thing was that when I would draw the little smiling face I would always draw it with the eyes closed, on purpose, to make a point for myself and anyone else who I told this "secret" to: some things look better when your eyes are closed. That statement is based on a verse from the Bible, 2 Corinthians 4:18.

"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." 2 Corinthians 4:18 (NKJV)

There are things we can see in the Bible that do not always agree with what we see in our everyday life. For example, the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:17 that if anyone is a Christian that person is a new creation and old things have passed away. By just looking at a person physically and from a natural standpoint that does not always make sense because that person does not change their physical appearance when they become a Christian. So sometimes we must look past the natural things we see to the spiritual truth the Bible teaches us.

Another example of this is when we face a difficult situation in our life or our physical body is attacked with sickness. We have the choice of what will we "look" at. Will we look at and focus our attention on the natural and physical reality that we see or the spiritual truth that the Bible shows us? While we cannot deny the reality of the situation in our life we need to realize that there is a higher reality that we need to look at if we want to have victory and success in our life.

We cannot just say to someone "I am not having a problem" or "I am not sick" or "I do not have a bill to pay" when that is the natural reality. But instead we can say like the Bible says, "No matter what situation I face God is on my side and He will help me" or we can say "Jesus took my sickness and pain on Himself at the cross and I declare myself healthy and healed" or in when we find ourselves in a challenging situation financially we can say "The Bible says God will supply everything I need". When we do this we are choosing to look at the spiritual truth in the Bible and we are choosing not to look at and focus only on the natural situation. When we do this we are doing things the way God would have us do them and by getting in line with God's Word and declaring it we are on the pathway to success. Sometimes things do look better when our eyes are closed.