Seeing Things That Can’t Be Seen

Seeing Things That Can’t Be Seen

We don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.

2 Corinthians 4:18

We live by believing and not by seeing.

2 Corinthians 5:7

Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.

Hebrews 11:1

Have you ever watched a movie or read a book about a character who could become invisible? We might accept it for the world of fantasy, but if someone told us to look at something invisible in the real world, we would think he or she was either a little crazy or trying to trick us. But several times in the Bible we are told to “see” something that is invisible, so it must be possible.

Paul writes that “we live by believing and not by seeing” (2 Corinthians 5:7). This means that the most precious and important realities in the world are beyond our five senses. So we “look” at these realities through what we know of Christ from the Bible. These truths about him were recorded by faithful witnesses who saw him and heard his voice and wrote down his message for us.

What are the things the Bible says we should “fix our gaze on” that cannot be seen? We have never seen Jesus with our physical eyes, and yet we fix our eyes of faith on him, and we believe. We can’t see God’s invisible hand working behind the scenes of history and in our lives, and yet by faith we believe it. We have never seen a place called heaven and can’t find it on the map, and we can’t imagine what it will be like. Yet we fix our eyes of faith on God’s promises of the place he is preparing for us, and we believe.

This is faith—spiritually seeing God and recognizing him as the ultimate reality of the universe, the most solid truth in all creation, even though he cannot be seen with the human eye.

DISCUSSION STARTERS

What are some invisible things you wish you could see?

Is this kind of “seeing” a feeling or a decision or a gift?

What things do we have now to base belief on that the people of the Old Testament did not have?