How Do You Walk by Faith and Not by Sight?

Spinning.

Have you ever felt like your life was spinning out of control?

Tomorrow our youngest son goes off to college. There are more details to take care of than I remember from the experience with our first son and unlike the stretch with our oldest seven years ago, we are also preparing our house to sell. Every time I turn around there’s a new upgrade we need to do and another contractor we need to hire. With an already full schedule, I wonder when I will accomplish all this.

Emotions.

I thought I’d be fine with our youngest moving onto this next phase of his life. Bret has always been our strong willed child, doing things his way, but I am realizing it will be very quiet without him around. I have also seen him mature over the past year and trust God is molding him into the man he wants him to be. I am going to miss him.

Saying goodbye to our home for the past ten years will also be difficult. I have never taken this neighborhood or beautiful scenery for granted and I am thankful for God’s provision. Our home is God’s home and we have used this house to host many faith-based groups and events. Our door has always been open to friends who need a place to stay. While we shouldn’t hold on too tightly to material things, I am having a difficult time moving on.

So when so much is changing around you, how do you live by faith and not by sight?

Let’s start with the definition of faith found in Hebrews 11:1:

“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.”

Following this passage, Scripture lists off some of those “ancients” who are commended for their faith. During this season, I relate the closest to Abraham, who, with the promise of an inheritance, was called to leave his comfortable home and travel to a place he’d never been before. He obeyed God and went, even though he didn’t know where he was going. For a number of reasons I believe we are called to move, and like Abraham, we must trust that God will show us where to go even though we cannot see the destination.

“By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, ‘It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.’ Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.”

Don’t worry; there is no sacrificial altar in our backyard. But when we send our children off to college, we are sacrificially laying them at God’s feet and have to trust that he will watch over them while they are away. I believe the Lord has a hope and a future for Bret because he is one of his children and he will honor my prayers for him.

I have confidence in what I hope for and assurance about what I do not see.

What has God asked you to have faith about without sharing all the details? When you start to worry. When the anxiety creeps back in, center yourself again and remember to have faith because God sees what’s ahead and desires to lead you there.