week of 10/05/11 2nd recorded HighQuest 2 Corinthians 5:1-10

The passage I read was 2 Corinthians 5:1-10

You can find that passage here:

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Corinthians+5%3A1-10&version=NIV

The verse that most stood out to me:

7 For we live by faith, not by sight.

As I reflect:

Paul in the previous chapter has just finished discussing some of our unseen traits. He talked about us being broken (cracked if you will) jars of clay with a great treasure inside of us. He also wrote about how outwardly we are fading away, yet inwardly we are being renewed each day. The point being made is the focal point we ought to have is not on the seen, but the unseen. Paul continues this approach in our passage.

He discusses our temporary body as we live here on earth (the seen) and our eternal and true body that we will have in our eternal home (the unseen). I think that this takes faith. Living in such a way as to trust in what is unseen takes a great deal of faith. Imagine the trust fall where you face a friend or family member and ask them to catch you. You then turn around and are unable to see them as they are now behind you. Then with your arms out to your sides you fall backwards without moving your feet to catch yourself and you have to trust them to catch you. Ok, that requires some small measure of trust in the person that says they will catch you. But, what if you never saw that person? What if someone else told you they were behind you and ready to catch you, but you had not seen them with your own eyes yet to verify that they were really there for you? A much greater faith is required for this scenario. We walk and live our lives day to day knowing that the unseen is very present on all sides of us. We know that there battles being fought by the fallen angels and the angels from Heaven. We know that we are being tempted by whispers from the enemy and that we walk with the Holy Spirit of God who encourages us to use the Word to destroy the lies our enemy tells. And we trust that we are not the bodies that people see us in. We are instead supernatural beings having a temporary natural experience and we recognize this by faith, looking forward to being home in our eternal bodies one day. We can also live in such a way as to have no fear of death because for us it is only the death of our temporary coverings as we pass on to greater things. In fact, we look forward to it as a release from the sufferings, hardships, trials, tribulations, and sin we experience only in this body and as a taking hold of who we truly are in Christ. And most of all we look forward to being absent from our temporary bodies because it means that we will be in the presence of God. It is because we are at home in this temporary body that our belief and trust in God is by faith. For when we go home it will no longer be a matter of faith but of seeing and being in the presence of the One on Whom we believed.

As I reflect on this, I can’t help but to see how others view us. For they see a people that trust in something other than themselves and yet they see no evidence of that “something” existing. We on the other hand can look nowhere in which there isn’t evidence of our Creator’s existence and desire to meet with us. May we salt the oats well, causing by our faith is our unseen God and by the evidence of His great works in and through us, a desire for others to come nearer to Him. This passage gives us not only the goal of being a good witness while in this body, but specifically to with all of our actions aim to please our Lord knowing that one day we will give an account of our actions before Him. I say witness because it is one of the things that we won’t be able to do once we are in His presence. I am focusing on what I can do while in this body, having faith that His Holy Spirit walks the path with me, guiding me that I might live in a way pleasing to my God.

My response to the Lord:

Holy Father, You are worthy of so much more than my life. But if it can be pleasing to you then I willingly lay down all that I am for your service. May your light be seen. May you be glorified in my actions and words. May my faith in you have a lasting effect on others that they may also be drawn to you Father. Help me to live a life that is pleasing to you my God. I pray your Holy Spirit guide and teach me that when I give account before You, You be well pleased. In Jesus’ name.