We Walk by Faith, Not by Sight

[Sue J Love]

“Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord— for we walk by faith, not by sight— we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” (2 Corinthians 5:6-10 NASB’95)

As human beings who live on this earth, in these flesh bodies, we are going to face trials and tribulations, and persecutions and rejections, and good times and bad times. We will have times of rejoicing, and times of sorrow and suffering. And we may have times when we hope that the return of Jesus will be soon, and we may have times when we are glad that we are still living on this earth, when we are thankful for the blessings of God in our lives, especially if we are being used of God to minister his grace to others.

But, no matter what we are going through, whether good times or bad, we walk by faith and not by sight. And faith in Jesus (in God) is divine persuasion. And God persuades us as to his righteousness and holiness, and of our sinfulness, and of our need to die with him to sin and to now walk (in conduct, in practice) in obedience to his commands, by the grace of God, in the power of God. And faith is not contingent on our circumstances but on the grace of God and on our responses to him to obey him with our lives.

Just as I got to this point in this writing I received a text from an old friend, and one of her children just suffered a horrible injustice at the hands of a criminal. I will not go into the details, but if you are reading this, would you take a moment to pray for her and for her daughter and for the man who did this to her daughter? This is devastating to their family. They are believers in Jesus, and their trust is in God, but situations like this have a way of testing our faith in the Lord. They could really benefit from our prayers at this time.

And this is why we must walk by faith and not by sight, for our faith cannot be dependent on our circumstances. We have to believe God and rest in him no matter what happens to us. And things like this might lead some people to question God and his grace and mercy, and why he allowed such a thing as this to happen. God, though, is not the creator of evil, but he does allow evil to exist, otherwise none of us would still be here, because we all live in flesh bodies, and we are all born into sin and are still capable of sinning.

So, no matter what comes our way to test our faith and to try us, and which may hurt us, we walk by faith and not by sight, and our ambition is to live in such a way as to be pleasing to God in all that we are and say and do, for the glory and praise of God. For God never promised that life would be easy for us or that we would never have to suffer or that evil people would never do evil things to us. He said these things would take place. As Jesus suffered so we will suffer, too, if our lives are surrendered to obey the Lord.

[Matt 5:10-12; Matt 10:16-39; Matt 24:9-14; Luke 6:22-23; Luke 12:49-53; Luke 21:12-19; John 15:1-21; John 16:33; John 17:14; Acts 14:22; Rom 5:3-5; Eph 6:10-20; Phil 3:7-11; 1 Pet 1:6-7; 1 Pet 4:12-17; 2 Tim 3:12; 1 Thess 3:1-5; Jas 1:2-4; 2 Co 1:3-11; Heb 12:3-12; 1 Jn 3:13; Rev 6:9-11; Rev 7:9-17; Rev 11:1-3; Rev 12:17; Rev 13:1-18; Rev 14:1-13]

Now, living lives to please the Lord is not optional. And it is not true that we please God just by making professions of faith in him alone, which is what some people are teaching. We must live to please God. We must forsake our lives of sin to follow Jesus in obedience to his commands. For we are all going to appear before the judgment seat of Christ, and we are all going to be judged and rewarded according to our deeds. And if sin is our practice, and not obedience to God, then we will not inherit eternal life with God.

[Matt 7:13-14,21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Jn 10:27-30; Ac 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Tit 2:11-14; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,15-17; 1 Jn 3:4-10]

Songs in the Night

An Original Work / December 18, 2013
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.” Acts 16:25 NIV ‘84

Lord, I praise You forevermore.
You, my Savior, I now adore.
Hope in heaven awaiting me,
Because You died at Calvary.

I have been forgiven,
And I’m bound for heaven.
Jesus set me free from
All my sin, I say.
I will praise Him always!

Lord, I love You for all You’ve done:
Overcame death, my vict’ry won!
Jesus saved me, and now I’m free!
I rejoice in His love for me.

I will walk in vict’ry!
My sin is but hist’ry!
I am free to please Him
With my life today.
I will love Him always!

Lord, I thank You for giving me
A new life bought at Calvary.
Loving Jesus, I meet with Him.
Tender mercies now flow within.

Lord, I am so thankful;
Through my Lord, I’m able
To sit at His table;
Fellowship with Him.
I will thank Him always!

Walk by Faith, Not by Sight
An Original Work / March 29, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love