eyes of unfaith.

I struggle with looking at the world with faith through the eyes of the Lord.  Instead I lose hope in what He is capable of doing.

A few weeks ago someone shared a passage in Numbers with me that was a great reminder to press on in faith.  Around the same time, I was also strengthened by having a couple great people alongside me on a Sunday morning.  It is hard building a team from scratch – it takes work and commitment.  As musicians play more and more music together, they begin to learn each other’s styles – eventually just naturally playing and following each other without much even being said.  It is an awesome thing when that happens, but it does not happen overnight.

Even so, my team showed up for a practice I was very nervous about…and nailed it.  I was more than happy with how the songs for Sunday were sounding.  As a result, I was drawn into worship because of it all.  My hope was renewed for a few days!

Back to the passage in Numbers – In Numbers 13, the Lord commands Moses to send out spies to the land of Cannan.  God had taken them out of Egypt – out of slavery – and were leading them to the Promised Land.  And they were almost there!  They were at the edge of something that God had for them.  And this was their first glimpse of it.  The spies came back with reports of how fertile the land was and showed the people of Israel the fruits of the land.  What the Lord had for them was more than they could have hoped for!

Caleb then spoke up saying “We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we will surely overcome it.” (30)

The other spies quickly responded saying that it was impossible – “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are too strong for us.” (31)

Eyes of faith.  Eyes of unfaith.  So many times God has given vision of something great in which he has planned for us, but we look with the eyes of unfaith – stating it to be impossible.  I struggle with that.  As I build a music team, as our church crawls out of a valley of depression, as I consider the good things the Lord has for me – I doubt!  I doubt that we will ever see the fruits being carried in by the people of God.

As a result…I wander the wilderness much like the Israellites then did for FORTY years!  At times I feel as if I have wondered forty days after forty days as I give up trying to have faith in what God can do.  Unfaith lends itself to unhappiness…

…but faith leads to JOY.