“I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living” (Psalm 27: 13).
As we ponder the definition of faith, we hear it said that believing is seeing. “When I see it, I’ll believe it” is the way some would put it. In the verse quoted above David clearly writes that we believe first and then our belief leads us to see what we believe.
Biblical faith always has an unseen object. According to other Scriptures there will always be evidence that the unseen object of our faith exists, but when our faith is biblical faith the object of that faith will be unseen (Hebrews 11:6). Seeing does not lead to believing because we already have the object of our faith when we see, but believing does lead to seeing according to David and other authors of the Bible.
A rural pastor told his people that when they invited him home for dinner after church he was always hoping they would have fried chicken. If he had no reason to believe that would be the menu, he could only hope there would be chicken for dinner. But when he came into their home if he smelled chicken and saw from the living room chicken gravy on the dining room table, those things were the evidence of the object he could not see. He could now believe there was chicken in the kitchen, and he would have it for dinner.
David tells us that after the believing that leads to seeing, all we must do is wait on the Lord until we see the object of our faith. Are you believing God for something you cannot yet see?
Dick Woodward, 02 March 2013
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