First We Must Believe; Then We Will See

There is great significance in the Word “while”, “While we look not at the things which are seen”. It stresses the same lesson that Moses learned in his Test of Endurance. He learned that, in the providence of God, affliction serves a useful purpose for Believers.

It forms and strengthens our character and prepares us for the Eternal Glory that lies ahead. But the lesson that the word “while” teaches us is this: Affliction serves us only while we keep our eyes on the invisible realm. If we lose sight of it and become preoccupied with the world of time and of the senses, we are no longer able to receive the benefits that affliction is intended to provide for us.

So we are caught between two worlds; the temporal and the Eternal. The temporal is what we can see and we contact it with our senses. But the Eternal is the world God wants us to be at home in have in. And we can be at home in that world by only one means: that is Faith. Faith is the one thing that connects us to the unseen realities of God and His Word. Faith lifts us above the realm of our abilities and makes God’s possibilities available to us.