The Eyes of Faith

1 Peter 1:7-9
7These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

So the trials that I endure are not intended to destroy my faith, but rather to prove it genuine. Like an unused muscle that has atrophied, faith that has no trials will weaken. But the faith that you LORD have so mercifully gifted me with, you intend to train and teach me how to benefit from. And it is this training which lets me know that my faith is genuine.

You desire genuine faith because it always results in your praise, honor and glory. And though I do not see you with human eyes, the eyes of faith have allowed me to focus on your beauty and I can’t help but love you my Lord Jesus. I will one day see you clearly when you exchange my faith for sight, but until that day I will be content with the sight of you that has been burned into my heart and etched into my mind. And by virtue of your training me to see you, I am filled with joy which my words fall short of conveying.

Like a surgeon who has a trained eye to recognize what is unseen to ordinary man, make me skilled to see you through the eyes of faith until my faith of no longer of need and I am at last saved from the cancer of unbelief. Let Christ be revealed in my heart each day from now until he is revealed on a cloud in the heavens. I once was blind but now I see – what an inexpressible and glorious joy!