New Eyes of Faith – Episode 263

As a Christian, it is important to practice our faith. But what does your faith look like? The new eyes of faith is an awakening. In this episode, we explore the meaning of faith and how we sometimes deceive ourselves.

Thanks to our sponsor CTC Math – visit the website at CTCMath.com

Faith can be subjective. Your faith is naturally based upon your experiences, your understanding, and even your denomination. Even two people sitting next to each other in church can have a different take on faith. This lends itself to an interesting question. Where is your faith, and can you say you practice what you believe?

This may be a hard question to answer and one that will take some time and thought.

Do we love the One who gave us life? The one who loves us beyond anything we can imagine. Let’s take a moment and think about that. You. Are. Loved. That alone should open our eyes and give us new eyes of faith. That should fill us with such love that we want to share this love with others.

That is the crux of the issue that many of us face in our world today. Those who say they have faith and those who do not practice what they supposedly believe. Listen, we all fall short, but by the grace of God, we flounder. Thankfully Jesus came into the world to redeem us. We read in 2 Corinthians 12:9 (Read on air).

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

When our eyes are opened, we see evil for evil and good for good. That is why so many of us are upset by what is happening in our world today. Many people, they have been desensitized, and they can not see evil for evil.

Our eyes can be opened to greater faith and a deeper walk with the Lord, and at times it takes something catastrophic to happen before we can see the light, so to speak. Many things we consider important no longer are, and those things we hold onto, we find we can do without. Has that happened to you? You find that what was previously important is no longer an issue or of great concern. It is as if the blinders were removed; now, we can see clearly.

In Genesis 3:5, the tempter tells Adam and Eve a lie; the scripture reads: “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

So, what did they do? Genesis 3:6-7 (read on air).

What did they receive? New eyes of faith, but it was not a positive outcome for the pair. The eyes of Adam and Eve were opened when they ate the forbidden fruit. God warned them. His perfect will was for them to live with Him forever in the place He had created for them. Instead, they made a choice, and we see it perfectly in hindsight –

Scripture often talks about finding “favor in your eyes,” with many references to finding favor in God’s eyes. That should be our goal, to find favor in the eyes of God. How do we do this? How do we deepen our love for God? One way is by spending time in His presence. We have many reasons why this can’t happen. We have family responsibilities, work, school, and other obligations. And, it is a choice.

New Eyes of Faith

Just like Adam and Eve had a choice. This is the first lesson we learn in the Bible about good vs. evil. It is the enemy against us, the evil one. He hates what God created. God created and said, “It is good,” and that is what the evil one wants to destroy. He wants to destroy our families and us. An increase of faith helps us weather the storm of life, but we need that connection to each other and God.

Faith is a connection to the Almighty. We are made for connection. One of the podcasters on this network, Margaret Vasquez, who hosts the Wholeness and Holiness Podcast, talks about connection. As a trauma specialist, she knows that a lack of connection often causes dysfunction.

We can become disconnected from ourselves, those around us, and those we love the most. And a disconnection from God can lead us to other less desirable things! We can find we lack direction, and worse. Who we are is important, but who we are in Christ is important to renewing faith. Do we witness the gospel message? How can we when we are struggling ourselves? It is time to take a deep refreshing breath and look at our faith with new eyes.

As a business owner, I know that I better fulfill that promise when I promise to do something. No one cares about our excuses. Thankfully my job is not life and death, but it is important to keep websites up, bills paid so that the podcast stream doesn’t stop on your app and other things that we do to keep the business running. All of our behind-the-scenes work is invisible, but it is necessary for our customers. Many of my decisions were based on troubleshooting better options.

The worse thing we can do is not admit when we are wrong. We can all improve. Isaiah 2:10-12 (Read on air). Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight. (Talk about humility)

Isaiah 5:20-21 (Read on air)

In this way, we should troubleshoot our options when it comes to renewing our faith and praying to the Lord to open our eyes.

We can ask that the Lord gives us the new eyes of faith to:

Identify areas where we have sinned.
Make better choices.
To choose God first above all others.
To make time to pray.
To get our priorities right

Remember, faith is a choice. It is a free-will option given to us by an Almighty God who loves us and who loves you beyond anything we can comprehend. It is perfect love, and no one can love you the way God can. We are created in His image. We were created for a specific purpose. We were created to love and serve Him, but He gives us so much more than anything we can do for Him. Our challenge this week is to pray that the Lord opens our eyes to areas we need to improve and gives us a deeper faith.

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