“O Lord, Please Open His Eyes that He May See.”
In God’s Word, we’re given many examples of how God’s people walked by faith. The prophet Elisha protected Israel from the king of Syria, and the king sent chariots and soldiers to capture Elisha. “When the servant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was all around the city. And the servant said, ‘Alas, my master! What shall we do?’
“(Elisha) said, ‘Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.’ Then Elisha prayed and said, ‘O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see.’ So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and
behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.” (2 Kings 6.15-18)
Why couldn’t Elisha’s servant see the “horses and chariots of fire”? Elisha had faith in God’s power, but all the servant could see was the Syrian army. Sometimes, we are not very different from Elisha’s servant. Until our faith matures, all we can see are obstacles in our path. Without a maturing faith, we’re not yet confident in God’s power overcome those obstacles.
Our faith grows through hard times and struggles, and over time, faith produces steadfastness, which brings us to maturity. (James 1.2-4) We know these verses by heart: Hebrews 11.6 – “…without faith it is impossible to please Him”, and 2 Corinthians 5.7 “…for we walk by faith, not by sight.”
How does that work in real life?
You sign up to volunteer for Wichita WorkCamp and you’re assigned to a house along with three other adults and 12 teens. There are four days to complete the assigned task. It’s a challenge, but in four days “if nothing goes wrong, we might make it.” That’s walking by sight.
And then it rains all day on Tuesday. Now we’ve only got three days to get the job done. Now we’re walking by faith. For WorkCamp veterans, there was confidence based on experience. “We’re not exactly sure how we’re going to pull this off, but we will. We’ve done it before and we can do it again, with God’s help.”
As mature Christians, we must respond positively in tough situations so that younger Christians can see our faith in action.
O Lord, please open our eyes that we may see.