The Reality Of The Unseen
In pioneering days, way out west, people would take out an ad in a paper for a wife back east. There would be some correspondence via mail, not having ever seen each other, and committing to marriage by mail. Then, a woman would take a stagecoach to meet the man out west and marry him.
As I heard recently, even those of us who dated, became engaged, and then later married still did not know all there was to know about the person we married. In fact, after all these years, I am still discovering new things about my wife of thirty-seven years. But it doesn’t lead me to quit discovering or to stop loving.
Throughout history, people have done things and made decisions without seeing the outcome before they set out. Columbus sailed the ocean blue when it was believed there was nothing out there but death awaiting. He imagined something different, and history tells us just how important it was that he ventured out as he did.
There are a great many things we do without knowing how they will turn out. We do not think about it too much in the moment because we dream of better things coming from our endeavors. We often persist until we are either proven wrong or get the result we were hoping for.
Millions go to pharmacies every day to get medications they were not there to see produced and have no idea about the process or who may have handled it. Yet they believe they are getting the right medicine for the problem they are treating. They think nothing of it.
As my friend Greg Mohr says, I wasn’t there to see Jesus rise from the dead, yet I believe it. I have never seen heaven, and yet I believe it. I didn’t witness my name being written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, but I believe it is there. How long am I to believe these things that I was not a witness to? All my life! All the way into eternity! I am to spend my life here believing in things I have not yet seen and not think of it as strange or odd.
Why is it that believers in Jesus can believe in these unseen things with such endurance but struggle to believe the promises with endurance? In fact, believers have believed the aforementioned things even in the face of profound persecution and stood their ground in their beliefs about them, even to the point of death.
Scripture reveals that with the heart, man believes unto righteousness, and with his mouth, he confesses Jesus is Lord and is born again. Something unseen is believed, and confession is made concerning it, and then the fruit of it is manifested through a changed life. But it still requires believing in something unseen.
With all this evidence of what it means to believe in things unseen, why should anyone struggle with standing in faith for healing, a miracle, financial blessing, or help in a time of need?
The Bible says all the promises of God are yes and amen in Christ Jesus. Believing is a very practical proposal when you think about it. Confessing what one believes is just as practical. So why should we feel strange in speaking of such things and giving praise to the One who makes all these things possible? Why should we ever be ashamed of believing in things unseen? The reality of the unseen is often more real than what we can see.
