Seeing the unseen

In that test of perspective about the glass of water, I’m probably the person who sees it half empty rather than half full. Some of this is learned. I used to get excited about the prospects of some good thing happening, and when it didn’t, the emotional crash became too much. It seemed easier to stay level than fly high then fall to earth.

Yesterday was our first Sunday without our pastor. The Lord called him to spend five months in Pakistan (a whole other story), and my husband was first in line in the pulpit. At his invitation, some of our family who don’t normally go to church, said they would come. I should have been flying high. Instead, I thought if they don’t show up I don’t want to be disappointed. Then when they did appear, my emotions stayed annoyingly level. I wanted to be joyful, exhilarated, but that didn’t happen.

God has a prescription for my ailment. In 2 Kings 6, He tells the story of the king of Syria who was continually thwarted in his attempts to ambush Israel because the prophet Elisha kept telling the leaders of Israel where he was and what he was going to do. The Syrian king at first thought he had a traitor in his army, but when he found out it was this man of God who was messing with his plans, “he sent horses and chariots and a great army there, and they came by night and surrounded the city” where Elisha was.

Elisha had a servant who got up early and saw the army. He woke Elisha and said, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?”

I’m like that servant. I see the problems in my world and am greatly alarmed. I cannot think of anything else but the size and power of them. I try to say things like, “God will help me” or “This too shall pass” yet struggle with my focus. Elisha’s response, well, actually God’s response, rebukes both the servant and me.

Elisha said, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Then he prayed, “LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.”

The Lord did open the servants eyes and “he saw the mountain full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.” It was the armies of the living God, revealing God’s protection and that He is in control of everything concerning those who serve Him.

I’m humbled. Even though I cannot see it, and even though I am not a prophet with the stature of an Elisha, the promises of God are mine also. There is nothing that can touch me, or those I pray for, apart from the permissive hand of God. Greater is He who is with me than those who threaten, or those problems that seem so powerful.

Elisha’s servant needed a visual, but I do not. I’ve a God-given faith to recognize the unseen world and to remember that He is involved in my life. I cannot always see it, but I know and need to keep my mind on these words from other end of the Bible. 2 Corinthians 4 says, “Therefore we do not lose heart . . . . For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

Truly, this tough stuff shall pass, but even in it, God is at work. Whether I can see His armies or not, faith tells me of their presence.