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The Apostle Paul told the Corinthian Christians that they are presently living in an “earthly tent” but have an “eternal house in heaven“. He taught and urged them to “look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen” (2 Cor 4:18). He reminds the Christians that they need to live by faith – “For we live by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7).
This teaching of “Our Christian Walk” sounds easy to put into practice. However, in our daily Christian walk we are repeatedly challenged with problems and difficulties and real issues mount day-by-day. We go through trials of ill health or mental strain, difficult work or school environments. Relationship troubles haunt us with pressing needs from family or personal finances. At our home, workplace and schools we seem to experience injustice or slander, betrayal or loneliness. Our daily living through all these challenges might cause our first instinct to usually save ourselves, rather than to trust God’s absolute Sovereignty and His perfect timing, love, goodness and deliverance. Trusting our God in our Christian walk by living by faith is really challenging!
The mystery and challenge of the Christian life is learning how to live by faith, when it seems so much easier to live according to what we see. Living by faith means that we must learn to live according to what God tells us in the Bible, His daily Word to us and not according to what we observe with the human eye. Almost always, living by faith means that we put aside the way the people of this world does things. It means making our aim to please our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We always remember that we are living in our “earthly tent” and our “house in heaven” is with our Lord.
During the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt to Canaan, the Promise Land, the LORD led the Israelites through the wilderness for 40 years. They received enough manna and quails to eat every day but only enough for that one day. Perhaps the lesson for us here is that every day, like the Israelites, we need to live by faith. We don’t receive a storehouse of “faith” when we become Christians and draw it down for the rest of our lives. It is a moment-by-moment journey and God will always give us just enough to see us through to the next step. To most of us this can be very scary but it is also very exciting – trusting God and living by faith. What a great opportunity and privilege to see what God will do in our lives!
