Have you ever been faced with decisions that had to be made and had no idea as to what you should do? Have you ever had life ripped from beneath your feet leaving you disoriented and confused? Life is like that far more often than we like. In fact, it could be safely said that we have far less control over life than we would wish. Life can throw us curve balls at any time and in numerous ways.

For Christ followers the antidote to this is simple. Hard but simple. In 2 Corinthians 5:7, Paul reminds us that “We live by faith, not by sight.” Let that sink into your heart and mind today: We live by faith, not by sight.

Here is the reality. Even when we think we can see all that is going on around us we are fooling ourselves. We have absolutely no idea what today will bring. But we know the One who does - our loving heavenly father. He knows and He says, “trust me,” “follow me.” That is what it means to live by faith rather than by sight. It is a daily and even moment by moment awareness that He has us, we simply need to trust. 

When life is ripped from beneath us or when we have no idea what we ought to do in a given situation, this is what we do know. God has placed His Holy Spirit in our lives so the God we serve, actually lives within us. We know He can be trusted, we know He is good, we know He wants to bless us, we know He knows everything we don’t know and that He has solutions for all those situations we have no solutions for. That is why we can choose to live by faith, not by sight. 

This means that we intentionally place our lives and situations in His hands and ask that He would give us the wisdom of His Spirit who indwells us to know which way to turn. Sometimes there are no ways to turn and we simply need to sit in His presence and trust Him for the outcome. As the Lord says in the Old Testament. “Be still and know that I am God.” Be still. Sit in my presence. Remember that I am God and you are not. I am sovereign over the circumstances of your life. You can choose to live by faith, He says, trusting me.

In Proverbs 3:5-6 we read this. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”  To live by our own understanding is to try to figure life out by ourselves. It is a fool's errand because we don’t know what we don’t know. He knows everything while we know only a few things. Living by faith is to invite Him into the conversation about our life, our situations, our challenges and to ask Him for divine guidance in the decisions that we make. It is only God who can make our paths straight.

Today, choose to live by faith not by sight. Invite Him into the conversation and ask Him for divine guidance.

Father, I thank you that you know all because I know just a bit. I choose to trust you today and in the situations I face. Teach me what it means to live by faith, not by sight. Make my paths straight today, Amen.