I must note - at my husband's request - that he is not wearing a dress but black shorts and a dark blue jumper! lol
Does this photo mess with your eyes? lol... It does mine, and that was my intention on making it this way. Because that's almost how it felt this morning while out walking with my hubby (seen in pic), when he urged me to try walking along with my eyes closed for a moment. I don't think he was trying to get me to walk face-first into a tree... ;)
On first closing my eyes I felt confident. I guess that's because my brain memorised my surroundings and I knew where I was heading, but that didn't last long. My brain could no longer tell me what laid ahead of my moving feet because it could no longer assess my surroundings, and confidence swiftly dropped off behind me. The more I walked the slower I got and the more my brain tried to convince me I was going to step off the edge of the earth and fall into a bottomless black pit if I did not stop! It truly felt that way for me...
Walking like this reminded me of faith. Hence the verse in the pic.
But faith is the opposite of what I felt. I started to walk by fear.
In the 'natural' we close our eyes and lose sight of everything. In witnessing this 'in the flesh' we often assume that is what faith is: Close your eyes and lose sight of everything. BUT, faith is just the opposite of what our flesh sees, isn't it.
If everything we are and all the senses we possess enabled us to see into the spirit world, then we would not need faith, would we. Faith sees beyond our senses. A porthole, if you will, to another dimension.
Faith enables our closed spiritual eyes to open, and rather than light fading and darkness rising before us, the opposite takes place.
Faith does not keep us in the dark. Faith enables us to walk through darkness with a light turned on.
Faith does blind us. It gives us eyes to see.
As I viewed my physical response this morning, I said to Tim, "This is how I walk in faith at times..." as I do in the flesh. I focus on the darkness and therefore lose sight of what's before me, and because I fear I'm going to 'fall off the edge of the earth' my steps slow down more and more until I come to a stop, unable to move, losing the will to go on, and wondering where God went.
Fear closes our eyes to God's truth. Faith opens them.
Fear closes our hearts to God. Faith opens it.
Fear cripples. Faith heals.
Fear imprisons. Faith leads to freedom.
"Father God, please open our spiritual eyes so we may see through the darkness and walk in the light of faith... xxxxx"
Oh, I just had a thought - which I will leave with you to ponder, just as I will be doing:
Fear functions best when love is not present... But God is Love. :)