How To Walk By Faith And Not By Sight

How can we learn how to walk by faith and not by sight? What biblical principles can help us do this?

Walking With God

What does it mean when the Bible says “walking with God?” Genesis 6:8 says “These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.” It was said that “Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him” (Gen 5:22-24). There are certain conditions that a person must meet in order to be able to be walking with God. Along this line, Amos asks a rhetorical question, “Do two walk together, unless they have agreed to meet” (Amos 3:3). In other words, there must be a mutual agreement between us and God. We have to walk up to God to meet Him where He is. God says “If you will walk in my ways and keep my charge” (Zech 3:7) then you can be said to be walking with God. We don’t walk behind Him and His will for our life nor do we run ahead of Him, ahead of His divine timing for our life. If we walk in obedience to Him we are walking with Him.

Illuminating the Walk

If you have ever walked the foot trails in Colorado, you probably know you’ve got to start heading back early because late in the day in the mountains, the shadows start darkening the path you’ve been on and it’s far too easy to stumble in the twilight of the evening. So too is the path of life for the Christian. They need the illumination of the Word of God to light the path to prevent them from stumbling. The psalmist knew what would help. He told God, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 3:5-6). The opening up of your Bible brings light as the “unfolding of your words gives light” (Psalm 119:130). Solomon knew that “the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light” (Prov 6:23). Paul tells the church, “you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness” (1st Thess 5:5). Walking by faith doesn’t mean we can’t have the illumination of the Word of God.

Walking by Faith

If we are truly walking by sight then this means “we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2nd Cor 4:18) and that “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb 11:1). That’s how we’re able to “walk by faith, not by sight” (2nd Cor 5:7). We trust with the eyes of faith and not with the eyes of flesh. Our eyes can fool us. There are many optical illusions in this world but God is infinitely more trustworthy than anything that we will ever see with our eyes. We walk by faith and not by sight in a lot of things in our life every day and not just in our faith in Christ. We never inspect the bridge we drive over but drive over it in good faith. We start our car and drive off, knowing we have brakes. We can’t see the brakes but we trust they’ll work when we need them, however God is altogether more trustworthy than any human device ever invented.

Trusting Jesus

When Peter walked on the water, he was fine until he started looking down at the water. Why? What happened? When Peter did this, he took his eyes off Jesus and onto his physical surroundings. I think that happens to believers too, therefore we should be “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb 12:2). Jesus knows the way; He will lead us into the kingdom, but more than that, He is the way as He says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). God is the One Who can “open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me” (Acts 26:18). You can trust an unseen God with our unseen future, more than you can trust what you see with your own eyes. That’s because when your faith is in God, you can walk by faith and not by sight.

Conclusion

If you haven’t trusted in Christ and received saving faith after repentance, then you are walking by sight, but really, your still walking in darkness (Eph 5:8). It is only after you repent and trust in Christ that you finally see the light, however if you’re a Christian and you’re in a dark, deep, shadowy valley right now, rest assured, God’s Word is always “a lamp to [your] feet and a light to [your] path” (Psalm 119:1-5). He wants you to see the path your taking and trust Him with what’s around the blind corner. He is there already, before you get there, so how can you not walk by faith and only by sight?

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren Church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Teaching Children the Gospel available on Amazon.