"While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." 2Corinthians 4:18 KJV
Have you realized how many times we miss the mark when we try to judge a play by only one episode? It is true; one puzzle gives no glue how the big picture is going to look like. It always requires that we wait until all the puzzles are fitted in their proper places before we have an idea what the picture is going to look like.
Many incidents we go through in life are just a glimpse of what really the picture looks like. They are merely puzzles for the big picture. We often times waste a lot of time and energy trying to figure out what the puzzle means; and many times our interpretation of incidents is far from what the true meaning is.
If you are just as human as I am; you must have gone through a lot of such incidents during this year. You must have tried to make sense out of every incident as it happened to you; I suppose. I did, and guess what? You are right. A lot of times – I mean a lot of times; I hit far from the target.
There are many incidents that happened to us this year we don’t want to think about. We prayed about them but nothing seemed to happen. We asked questions; where lies the problem? Why can’t we gain break through over them? Well, no one knows except God. But through a careful study of the word we are able to figure out why we are not making progress in this regard.
Many times the incident is just a puzzle of a big picture. When we throw all our attention on it we lose sight of the big picture. We pray to get rid of the problem only to find that in our dealing with the puzzle we miss the big picture. The Bible says what we can see is temporal. In other words, the puzzle is not the real problem; the real problem is yet to come. The puzzle foreshadows the big problem and if unattended it has a lasting effect. When you pay attention to what you see it is like you are spending your whole time on the introduction. Before a real problem comes; there are always signs. You miss it when you fail to realize that what you see is just an introduction. When you know that what you see or what you are going through is sign of what is yet to come; you are able to pray right.
Let us attempt to amplify this by applying an illustration. John 10:10 says "the thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy." Jesus is talking about Satan; He calls him a thief. He mentions three things that Satan comes to do in our lives. He comes to steal, kill and destroy. He starts by stealing from you, then kills and ultimately destroys.
1. He starts by stealing. When you pay attention to what he steals, he is left to move to the next step.
2. He then kills – he takes lives
3. He finally destroys those lives in hell
If you pay attention you will realize how he betrays us into believing that the problem is in loss of material goods where else, from the beginning his aim has always been to destroy one’s life in hell.
But God has provided us with the right means to view every problem we encounter. "While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." We therefore refuse to look at the things that are visible and look at the things that are not visible. We turn down every tricky offer of the devil and refuse to pay attention to the things that are seen for we know that they are the devil’s introduction of the real problem.
I remember in the days of the liberation struggle in South Africa. For instance; when the freedom fighters wanted to bomb a shopping complex, they would make a very big fire fuelled by old tires on the other side of the township. A very big smoke would rise into the atmosphere and it would look like a big building or maybe a truck has been set alight. This ugly scene would attract the police and the army’s attention. Both the policemen and the army would rush to the scene of fire and leave the targeted area unguarded. The freedom fighters would then bomb the targeted building without any fear of the armed force. What did they do? Without power or authority they forced the armed forces to move away and give them chance to destroy the building without any disturbance. They defeated the armed forces without any military weapon in their hands.
The devil uses the same strategy. He has no power or authority over a Christian. He uses tricks. He arrests your attention on something visible and bombs your life while you pay attention there. He steals in order to divert your attention from his target which in this case is your life. You pull all your resources to attend to the danger you can see where else the real danger is not what you can see but what you cannot see.
God is calling our attention to focus on the big picture and not the tiny pain or joy of the moment. Everything we go through pain or joy we should never allow ourselves to be tricked into believing that the main event is in what we see, hear, feel, smell or touch. This is just a dress rehearsal; the main event will be flashed on the screen of your life when you list expect. It’s too late already when you try to turn your eyes to check what’s happening.
When something happens to you; instead of paying all your attention to what your senses tell you, CHECK ON WHAT THE PURPOSE IS. If it’s something good, check on what the purpose of this is. If it is something bad, still check on the purpose. Do not worry much about what the picture look like now; check on what the picture is going to look like when it reaches its maturity. You can only do this when you know the purpose of something. Some things are beautiful and harmless at their infant stage. Hang around and see how destructive they are as soon as they reach maturity.
Never allow your eyes to deceive you with what they see "for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal."
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