Here’s something that can change your life, or at least your attitude. It’s a simple message: with the eyes of faith, we become victors and not victims and fulfill who we really are. That’s quite a promise. No matter where you are, no matter how life has been treating you, there is always the opportunity to pull ourselves up by the bootstraps and turn what seems like a situation without an exit into victory.
What are the “eyes of faith”?
They’re the eyes we use to see beyond earth. They are the eyes of the future. They are eyes that see beyond what is locked. They are the eyes that can visualize a positive way that will materialize blessings.
God honors faith. That’s throughout the Bible. And faith means seeing things with the firm conviction that God can take us any place, if it’s in His plan; if it fits His will.
Has someone said something negative to you — or about you?
Shake it off. Dust it from your back like you would any grit. Learn this as a first step: the dispelling of negativity from others. While there are times when we are legitimately corrected, too often negativity is satan’s way of binding us in discouragement.
And at its first appearance, we must take the time to reject it; we must immediately root it out!
The more we do that — the more we learn to brush off evil — the easier it becomes.
Next, we have to see ourselves in a positive light. God does. He loves you more than you love yourself, and sees your true potential — the power you have to become a glorious servant in eternity. He knows that beneath the exterior, under the skin of the earthly body — and often deep under the burdens of life — is a being of terrific beauty (waiting to burst out of the cocoon and fly skyward).
How do we gain that beauty? Here we get back to the eyes of faith. With those eyes we elevate our vision above present turmoil — beyond any problem — and see the best of outcomes. We see what we want to happen. We see who we want to be.
And if it’s God’s will that’s the path we will then follow. When we elevate our eyes, when we look above those who harass us, when we see beyond earthly trials — no matter how severe — we are on the road of glory.
Said a man named John Ortberg, “If we don’t rejoice today, we will not rejoice at all. If we wait until conditions are perfect, we will still be waiting when we die. If we are going to rejoice, it must be this day. This is the day the Lord has made.” It’s a choice. Choose it.
On the cross, it’s what Christ saw. It’s the heaven He had in mind even as He was crucified. It’s the paradise He offered the thief.
Satan, on the other hand, wants us to lose hope, wants us to be discouraged, wants us to find ourselves so down that we don’t think there’s a way out of the hole! Often, our prayers are blocked until we first cast him away in the Name of Jesus.
So next time you feel down, shake off that feeling, settle down to prayer, and in the depths of prayer see yourselves and your situation in the best of light. See your problems dissolving — or working to your ultimate benefit. See Christ lifting you up.
Satan is only as powerful as you let him be. Christ is the ruler over all aspects of existence and He has more joy and peace waiting for you than you have ever experienced or ever imagined but is waiting for you to raise the eyes of faith -- to look to the land of joy -- and claim it.
[resources: A Life of Blessings]
