“What Are You Looking At?”

By Eric Hutchinson, Fellowship Bible Church Celebrate Recovery ministry TEAM Training Coach, 2/10/2021

Take a moment and hold a book up to your face, just inches away. What do you see? It’s huge, isn’t it? When you hold a book that close to your face you can’t see anything else but the book, and it looks insanely big. That’s kind of like life. When troubles come or there is a tragedy in my life, everything else takes a back seat, and all I can see is this big huge problem.

Last year we all dealt with a global pandemic, nationwide rioting, and then the presidential election. Personally, I was struggling financially, and it seemed there was no relief in sight. Those events and problems were like this huge thing, inches from my face that seemed to block my vision and tried to keep me from seeing anything else. However, I am a member of this small community called Celebrate Recovery, maybe you’ve heard of it. They teach that I am NOT God, and that I need to admit that I am powerless against my tendencies and circumstances. CR teaches that I need a higher power (Jesus Christ) to help me pull that huge book of problems away from my face and take this sinful world as it is and not as I would have it.

But, this is a difficult thing isn’t it? To believe that it takes something invisible to solve a problem that is visible. We call that faith, and sometimes it’s a hard thing to have. I want to draw your attention for a moment to the wind. The wind is invisible, isn’t it? I am so used to seeing the impact of the wind that sometimes I forget that the wind itself is actually invisible. I can feel it, and I can see the result of it, but it’s invisible. Sometimes the wind is so powerful it can move structures that would be impossible for me to move by hand. Yet, it cannot be seen by my eyes. 

Romans 1:20 says, “For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities…”

God is like the wind, isn’t he? I see the impact of God all around me. He is moving, stirring, and sometimes He’s just a small breeze, but other times He’s a hurricane! I think God created the wind to give us an irrefutable example of His presence in this world. Here’s the point; don’t focus your attention on the troubles of this world. These are the things that are easily seen, and they are temporary. Focus your attention on Jesus. He is our higher power, and while He is invisible physically, He is moving, stirring, and acting on our behalf.

Read the passage below and allow God’s word to encourage you my friend. Our troubles are seen, and God is unseen. Fix your spiritual eyes on the unseen, for that is what lasts forever! I hope this devo finds you in a really good place, but if not, allow Jesus to pull that huge book of troubles away from your face. Let Him blow through your life with His love, joy and peace. What are you going to see?

“That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever." 
2 Corinthians 4:16-18
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