Walking by Faith, Not by Sight

By Dean Collins

If you have ever been to a youth camp or a team-building session at work, you might have experienced an exercise called a “trust walk.”  The leader breaks the group into pairs and one person in each pair are then blindfolded. The seeing person is to give directions to the blindfolded person and lead them from one place to another safely.

There are a couple of ways to do this exercise. One way is for the seeing person to hold the hand of the blindfolded person or place a hand on their back while giving verbal instructions and warnings. The other, and more difficult way, is for the seeing person to only give verbal instructions with no physical help. In both scenarios, the one who is blindfolded must have faith or trust that the other person will lead them to their destination successfully. If you haven’t tried this lately, it is a great exercise that gives you a new appreciation for what is like to walk by faith and not by sight.

The apostle Paul gave a clear reminder of what much of scripture teaches us: “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” (2 Corinthians 5:7) The writer of Hebrews reminds us of a couple more things regarding our faith:

1) “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (11:1)

2) “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” (11:6)

As followers of Christ, we are on one big trust walk. Our trust walk began when, by faith, we came to believe that Jesus is the son of God who took our sins to the cross, paid our debt, was buried and rose again. Now we walk by faith as we journey through our life here in our physical bodies until we receive our eternal bodies and live and walk on the renewed earth with eyes that no longer see dimly but can see clearly and enjoy the moment we see Jesus. What a day that will be. 

But for now we walk by faith, trusting fully in the promises of God while we surrender our lives and our will to him. In Hebrews 11, we find encouragement that we are not the first ones who were called to live and walk in faith. The writer of Hebrews gives us many examples of the heroes and saints of old who lived their lives and accomplished amazing things by faith. This has been God’s method of teaching us in every generation. All the way back to Abraham and the covenant God made with him, mankind has been charged to trust in God’s promises and pass them on to the next generation. Every generation walks by faith and not by sight until we meet Jesus in eternity.

Our trust walk isn’t just a team building or youth camp exercise. This is our daily experience. But I suspect that, like me, you would rather have Jesus take your hand and lead you instead of just giving us guidance from scripture. Even with the indwelling of his Holy Spirit, wouldn’t you rather have the assistance of someone making physical contact and giving you assurance that you will get through this challenging life successfully?

One of the things the apostle Paul stressed in his Corinthian letters and elsewhere in his writing was the importance of understanding that we are called to community. We are a part of the body of Christ, and we experience our trust walk in community with other members of the body of Christ. We are not called to do our faith walk alone. 

We are led by the head, Jesus, and filled with his Spirit. But we do have physical partners. As members of the body of Christ, we are called to help each other as we walk by faith and not by sight. We can help each other in many ways:

• Prayer

• Words of encouragement 

• Sharing our faith journey so that we learn from others who have had similar challenges

• Offering support or assistance, both verbally and financially

• Coming alongside and providing tangible help with hard projects or in seasons of illness

As each generation of faith works together, we will accomplish two things. We will help each other, and we will teach the next generation to learn to live in community and not try to take on life alone.

Walking by faith and not by sight is not always easy, but when we do, we will discover that God will be with us and will provide everything we need to accomplish his will and complete the assignments he has given. And one day we will take off take off the blindfold and see him face to face.

Father, thank you for the promises of your word that you are with us, even to the ends of the earth. Thank you for calling us to live in community so that together we live and work as your hands and feet in the world today. Thank you for Jesus, who is our head. Thank you for your Holy Spirit, who lives in us and provides daily wisdom, comfort, advocacy, and guidance. Today we embrace your instructions to live by faith and not by sight. We ask that you make us a powerful example to the next generation who will take our place, that they can walk by faith and not by sight. In Jesus’ name, amen.

 Your Time with God’s Word
2 Corinthians 5:7; Ecclesiastes 1:4; Genesis 17:7; Exodus 3:15; Ephesians 3:20-21; Hebrews 11:1-3, 6 ESV

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