Working with the unseen 

Is it hard for us to trust that God is working on our challenge because you can’t see everything He’s doing? I know that having faith can be easier until you get assaulted with doubt and unbelief.

But no matter how hopeless your situation looks or feels, God wants you to know that you can trust Him to do something great. You can walk by faith in order to see with your spiritual eyes what you can’t see in the natural.

Paul said in Ephesians 1:18-19 (NIV), “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in His holy people, and His incomparably great power for us who believe”.

As long as we believe, God keeps working. So, when we feel discouraged, we need to encourage ourselves that He is working for our good behind the scenes.

We can choose a habit of saying, “This is going to end well.” No matter what I am feeling, I’ll say, “God is good and He’s going to work this out for my good. He’s going to teach me something new and I’m going to be a better person than I was before.”

I think consistency should be one of our greatest goals as believers—continuously filling our minds with God’s Word, thinking positively, being prayerful at all times…obedient, peaceful, joyful. Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble” (John 16:33, NIV). But we can be glad anyway because we know how the story ends. Jesus continued, saying, “But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Look into the Unseen
“The kingdom of heaven” is referenced throughout the New Testament. When Jesus began His public ministry, he said, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” (Matt. 4:17, NIV). As most people would, Jesus’ disciples presumed that He was going to set up an earthly kingdom with a palace and a throne. But He rules over an invisible kingdom in the spiritual realm.

There may be angels with us right now? Many of us don’t really think about that because we can’t see them with our natural eyes. But just because we can’t see them doesn’t mean they aren’t there. God is a mighty God, and He rules over a mighty kingdom.

Psalm 91:11 (AMPC) says, “For He will give His angels charge over you to accompany and defend and preserve you in all your ways.”

As we become more conscious of the fact that God is always with us and He’s assigned His angels to defend and protect us, it should make us feel safer, more empowered to do what He’s called us to do and less likely to give up when things get hard. But here’s what we have to remember: No matter what kind of support He gives us, if we don’t believe that we have it, then to us, it’s as if we don’t have it.

Faith Is the Key to Victory
1 John 5:4 (NIV) says, “This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.”

Hebrews 11:1 tells us how it works: “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (KJV). Faith is a real thing; it has substance. In other words, faith is firmly committed. It refuses to be swayed by our ever-changing emotions or our current circumstances.

If you wake up in the morning and your back is aching, you can’t stand your job and your house is a mess, faith says, “Yes! I’m ready to face this day because I can do whatever I need to do through Christ” (see Phil. 4:13).

If you’re in a tough place in your marriage, or your children have drifted away from God, or you have a lifelong dream that is yet to be fulfilled, faith says, “God is working, and this is going to end well.”

It won’t always be easy, but God will always be with you to help you. And by faith, you can keep believing even before you see the result of what God has been doing all along.

Mark 11:24 (NIV) says, “Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

Whatever you’re going through, I encourage you to live with the positive expectation that something good is going to happen to you. Keep an “I can” mindset, and stir up your faith, believing God for greater things. And remember, no matter what you see or don’t see, God is working in your life.