I woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. The dog outside was barking and she did pretty much all night. The dog inside was whining. At 5:30 am, I am outside in the rain trying to see what in the world is wrong with her. I couldn’t see anything. It was dark, rainy and I’m sloshing around in flip flops and pajamas with a beach towel over my head because I couldn’t find my umbrella. I am sure it would have been quite comical if anyone could have seen it…but thank the good Lord above they didn’t.
Isn’t that how life is sometimes? We are looking for and trying to understand something, but have absolutely no evidence to help us out. Like me this morning…trying to figure out why my dog would not quit barking…even after having her safely under her shelter, she came right back out and started barking again. She’s still barking an hour later. She would just stand in the rain getting soaked because she had something to say (apparently).
Well, if you’ve been following me long enough and read my devotions long enough, you know that when I am frustrated, I go to The Word. And you are going to think I am making this up, but I was reading in Hebrews 11 about faith. My reading started at verse 23 when talking about Moses. Now we all know of baby Moses in the basket, but that Moses grew up and refused to be called Pharaoh’s son even after growing up in the palace. Hebrews tells us he chose to suffer the afflictions of God’s people. He chose not to partake in the sins of Egypt, but focus on treasures laid up for him in heaven. But, I love this next verse. I read it about four of five times.
“By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible.” Hebrews 11:27
Moses seen Him who was invisible. He knew God was so much greater than the suffering he would endure from Pharaoh. Y’all, that’s powerful. His faith was so strong, because he knew that suffering on earth may follow us everywhere here, but His eyes were fixed on heaven. His faith in a God outweighed any suffering He went through on earth. His supernatural faith in a God he had not seen, caused him to live a life of faithful devotion. He didn’t need evidence…He knew that Israel was God’s people and He knew a Messiah was coming. That’s big faith.
Our faith has to be so strong that we are willing to leave the safety of our shelters and come out into the rain and speak boldly and loudly for the cause of Christ. Sometimes when walking by faith we have to trust God and praise Him BEFORE we actually see any evidence or proof. We have to tune our spiritual eyes to He who is invisible and keep being heard no matter what is going on in the physical world around us. We can’t live in fear of this world, but we must remind ourselves that Moses and His perseverance in the faith of Jesus Christ allowed Him to see God face to face. And if I am being honest, we have lots of evidence in these days of God Almighty…but getting caught in the rain isn’t worth it for most folks.
I pray today that we can praise God in the sunshine and in the rain.
When you wake up on the right side of the bed and the wrong side.
When we have proof and have cashed the check, or when we are praising Him on credit.
Sometimes blessings don’t always look like a blessing at first. Especially for me this morning when I was up way earlier than I wanted to be…but I was able to spend quiet, uninterrupted time with God and be reminded that just because I can’t see something with my physical eyes, doesn’t mean it isn’t there. I love how God gives us exactly what we need, exactly when we need it. That’s my evidence of a The “invisible man”.