The Evidence of Things Unseen

Why does life have to be so hard?  Have you ever caught yourself asking that question?  Maybe I should ask how many days, hours or minutes has it been since you asked that question.  In this world of instant everything, some seem to think that there should be "instant peace" in the life of someone who claims to be a Christian, at least that is, if God, the Bible and Jesus are all really real. 

How does that balance with Jesus himself telling us in Matthew 5 to ⁴⁴  love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵ that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. ⁴⁶ If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?  Everyone has tough times, the evil and the good, the righteous and the unrighteous.  I have learned in the midst of the storm I just want to see the outcome.  How is this thing going to end?  Will I survive this turmoil in my life?  While that would most definitely be nice, it wouldn't be faith now would it.  At the moment we know it, it is fact not faith!

The writer of Hebrews in the introduction to that great Hall of Fame of Faith in Hebrews 11 wrote  ¹ Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.    You and I have to believe in some things that we cannot see.

Yesterday I heard an interview with a blind cross country runner.  Talk about faith in what we cannot see.  This coach has to be faster than the runner and able to run just barely ahead and given commands as to direction for one who literally can't see the way.  Can you even imagine running as hard as you can, even if it is not very fast by comparsion, and not being able to see what is coming, except through the eyes of someone else?  Warning you to go left or right, faaster or slower, run uphill or down, watch out for that hole in the path.

Here's the deal gang, if the Bible is true that is exactly what God promises us that the Holy Spirit will do.

Nehemiah 9

¹⁹ “Because of your great compassion you did not abandon them in the wilderness. By day the pillar of cloud did not fail to guide them on their path, nor the pillar of fire by night to shine on the way they were to take. ²⁰ You gave your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold your manna from their mouths, and you gave them water for their thirst.

Isaiah 58
¹¹ The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will
strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.

John 16
¹³ But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. ¹⁴ He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you.

The evidence of things unseen ... thank you God ... stregthen my FAITH!