By Faith, Not Sight...Or Feelings

[This post originally appeared on my NTM blog.]

For we walk by faith, not by sight. – 2 Corinthians 5:7
We know following the Lord involves faith.  And faith, by definition, cannot be based on what we see or feel.  It’s based on what we know.

So how do we walk by faith?  How do I walk by faith?

There are times His leading doesn’t make sense to me; I don’t “see” why.  Sometimes I see my circumstances, and I would choose to handle them differently.  You know what I mean?

There are also times when my feelings don’t line up nicely with what He’s leading me to do.  At the risk of sounding like a bad missionary, I confess: There was a time (not so long ago) when I quite honestly just didn’t feel like going to West Africa.

I don’t always feel excited and totally passionate or even ready for this next step.  (Wait, aren’t missionaries supposed to be that way?  Excited to follow God to the ends of the earth and totally passionate about what He is doing?)  I don’t feel like leaving my home, my family, my friends, my church. I don’t feel like learning another language, living in a hot, humid climate, or being surrounded by poverty and dirt and bugs.

No, I don’t always feel excited about leaving and all that it entails.  God doesn’t necessarily command me not to feel those things, but He calls me to walk by faith and not by my feelings.  At some point I must choose to trust Him and obey.

You see, walking by faith isn’t the absence of human emotion or reason; it is obeying God even when what He asks us to do goes contrary to those things.  Faith is in what we know, not in what we see or feel.
So if you ask me if I’m excited to leave in less than two months?  I may or may not be, depending on the day.  But I’m going.  As God continues to lead, I’m going.  And He’ll be with me.

Faith is in what we know – God’s character.