“By
faith Moses forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as
seeing the One who is invisible.” Letter to the
Hebrews 11:27 NKJV
St.
Augustine had this to say about faith: “This would be no praise for faith,
nor would it be faith at all, if people were in believing to follow after
rewards they could see.” It follows, then, that as a measure of our
faith, we are to evaluate for ourselves what it is we are after. Do we
measure our spiritual growth in terms of what can be seen? Do we measure
our success in terms of what cannot be seen? There is a measure for each,
to be sure, but we must know exactly what it is we are after … or whether we
are after anything at all.
Discipleship
is not merely “believing”. Discipleship is the pursuit of something
greater than any single moment. Discipleship then pursues that
which cannot be found in any idle moment – nor in any idol we can put our hands
on. Discipleship cannot see what it is to be pursued, but it fully trusts
that what Christ has sent us after is worth pursuing even if we cannot actually
see it or put our hands on it in this present life.
Too
many for too long have taken faith and discipleship for granted. We have
been convinced – by others or by our own personal sense of self-serving
religion – that merely “believing” Jesus is the Son of God is sufficient
without pursuing the fullness of all this entails. Too many have been
convinced for too long there is nothing to pursue; that all we need “just
is”. As a result, too many churches have focused inwardly for so long and
pursued only those things which can be touched that we have lost all sense of
faith and what faith actually requires of us.
What
to do about it? The prophet encourages us to, “Seek The Lord while
He may be found; call on Him while He is near” (Isaiah 55:6).
If this same God spoke to His people like this so long ago, how can we believe
He would not so speak to His people now? Make no mistake, however. We
are compelled to “seek”. This is the motion of pursuit, inwardly and
outwardly, but it also requires significant faith to know something is worth
pursuing even if we cannot see it with our eyes.
The
Lord already came to the entire world in the birth of Messiah, and He walked
the earth for those years building a Body that would devote itself to one
another in pursuit of something much greater, yet which cannot be seen or
touched. The Body today cannot sit any longer gazing at its own navel,
and wonder where everyone went once we finally bother to look up. The
truth is they have gone off in pursuit of something because there may be no
longer a life in this Body which was called forth to “go” and “teach” and
“baptize”.
Nothing
is going to fall into our laps, and The Lord of the entire world is not going
to make an exception for any single individual, for “The Lord does not show
partiality”. Those who spend a life pursuing that which cannot be seen
will be the ones to find what they were looking for all along. “Seek
first the Kingdom of God …”
The
Lord is great, is He not?
Michael
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