SIGHT WITHOUT VISION

If you are operating by sight, you see the problems and challenges all around you. You see how many bills you have to pay; you see that your company is downsizing; you see things that threaten your security. Sight without vision is dangerous because it has no hope. Many people have been living by sight alone, and that’s one reason they have all kinds of medical problems– muscle tension, migraines, high blood pressure, heart disease, ulcers, tumors, and so on. Living by sight can kill you. Life is so full of depressing things that you need to learn to live by vision and see with the eyes of faith.

Remember that sight is the ability to see things as they are, and vision is the ability to see things as they could be. I like to go a step further and define vision this way: Vision is the ability to see things as they should be. Maybe you are going through a hard time right now and you’re disheartened. You’ve lost your vision edge. Perhaps this is because of your surroundings. Sometimes, the environments we live in are not the best for fostering vision. What people say to us is not always encouraging and can be very discouraging. I have been tempted to be disillusioned and discouraged many times. Even though we know that the discouraging things we see and hear are temporary, they still can distress and depress us. We must keep our visions constantly before us, however, because the visions in our hearts are greater than our environments. God gave us vision so we would not have to live by what we see.

The Bible is very clear that “without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6). If you try to function in any other way than faith, you will malfunction. That is why worry is ungodly and fear makes your vision short-circuit. You were never meant to be afraid. Jesus was filled with faith, and He was the calmest person on earth. He slept soundly in the middle of a storm. When His frightened disciples woke Him up, He asked them, “Do you still have no faith?” (Mark 4:40). He was telling them, “If you have faith you will be able to sleep during a storm, as well.” You may be saying, “This doesn’t sound very practical.” It is, however. I have been living this way–by faith instead of fear–for over twenty years, and it’s been so much fun. I don’t worry for very long about anything, because I believe that, ultimately, everything is on my side. Even the schemes of the devil work to my benefit. All things work for my good because I am called according to God’s

purpose. (See Romans 8:28).