Sight vs Faith

             Sometimes in life, it seems that we are given challenges that are seemingly beyond our abilities. We’ve all been there—where the task ahead looks greater than what we can do at the moment. It could be a new responsibility, a change of circumstances forcing us out of our comfort zone, or a difficult setback while pursuing a goal. In those times, we need divine aid more than ever, and yet often it can seem like Heavenly Father is hard to reach. I don’t want to claim for a second that I’m any expert in calling down miracles from heaven (that would be awfully presumptuous as well as a complete lie), but I do want to share some scriptural insights that have taught me something about the oft-discussed but oft-misunderstood concept of faith. My hope is that you will learn something new.

              My discussion starts and ends with Romans 8:24-25. It reads as follows:

“For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.” Let’s break this scripture down into a couple of very important concepts that Paul teaches.

                “Hope that is seen is not hope”. Here is a very important distinction: “sight is not hope”. Alma words it a little differently, saying “knowledge is not faith”, but essentially they are saying the same thing: faith/hope cannot exist at the same time as knowledge/sight. This is a concept that is downright scary if you’re ever asked to put it into practice, because it means you can’t have any proof beforehand.

Let’s use an example here to contrast the difference that Paul is explaining, from the greatest TV show currently in existence: Shark Tank. On the show, daring entrepreneurs are brought before some brilliant business people with the goal to convince them to invest in their businesses. One of the things that is often brought up on the show what sales for the company will be in the future. The Sharks (the businesspeople) will only ask about the past sales, and they assume the future sales will be similar. I’ve seen a couple episodes were the entrepreneurs get bold, or perhaps flustered, and throw out a future sales figure fantastically greater than any historical number. They are often met with laughter from the Sharks and those watching. Why? Because such a high figure goes entirely against what we’ve seen. We say “it hasn’t been done before, so there is little chance that they’ll do it now.” We’ll call them overly optimistic or downright foolish, and we’ll tell them to start thinking rationally. That is, after all, what the world would teach us to do. We’d call ourselves ‘realistic’ and completely ignore the idea.

Paul is saying the exact opposite. He is encouraging us to have hope, and then says “look, if you’ve seen it before, then it’s not hope.” Hope (or faith) should challenge our expectations for what can happen. The best example of this are the miracles in the scriptures. We read over these incredible miracles in the scriptures and take for granted what was really going into those situation. Take the incredible events by the Red Sea for an example. In the Shark Tank, the investors would only lose a nominal amount of money if those optimistic sales predictions were wrong. In Exodus, Moses was asking tens of thousands of people to stake their lives, along with the lives of their families, on the idea that they could get away from the Egyptians. Had anyone ever just stopped a sea and turned it to dry land before? I don’t think so. At that point, Moses is exercising true faith; he knows nothing, he has seen nothing. Go re-read that passage in Exodus 14:10-31 again, paying special attention to the timeline of events. The Lord explains to Moses in verse 16 how he will split the sea. But rewind a little and you’ll see that Moses promises deliverance to the Israelites before receiving revelation, back in verses 13 and 14. I might add that he uses the very definitive word “shall” in that promise—not “oh boy, I sure hope the Lord will fight our battles” or “I’m guessing God can get us out of this guys.” Nope, Moses says “the Lord shall fight for you…”  

Here’s the principle—true faith means you just don’t know what is going to happen ahead of time. To the historical-fact based world, this kind of decision making seems absurd. They would ask “How can you do that when it’s never been done before, when you have no idea what you’re doing?” But that’s the wrong question. The better question is “does God have all power or not?” If God controls all of the elements in his hand, then past experience is a moot point—completely irrelevant. Going out into that hazy area by risking ridicule, failure, and loss by simply believing, even without evidences, without any foreknowledge—that’s true faith.

This concept of acting without knowing beforehand seems counter-intuitive to us, who have been raised with the world’s paradigm force-fed to us since birth. Pretty much every decision that we make is determined by what we’ve seen, read, experienced—by what we know. But God challenges us to act from a different paradigm, to make decisions based on what we don’t know, we just really hope is going to happen.

Think about Moses again—at the moment he promises to the Israelites that God will intervene, what does he know? According to the scriptures, not very much. He knows God had previously said that He’d look out for them, and Moses had already seen God’s hand in the plagues that swept Egypt. But up until that point, God hadn’t really made specific mention and said “Hey Moses, here’s what will happen when you happen to get trapped on the beach…” Moses doesn’t know the future any better than you or I can predict what will happen tomorrow. What is he using as the basis of that promise then? He just hopes that God will come through. He has chosen to believe, chosen to think optimistically.

Therein lies another very important concept: Faith is a choice. If you haven’t seen a miracle before in your education, in your social life, that doesn’t mean you can’t have faith. Decide right now that you will trust in God’s incredible promise that “If ye have faith…nothing shall be impossible unto you.” (Matthew 17:30) Faith isn’t made from experience—that’s knowledge, not faith. No, true faith is springs up from a conscious decision. And make no mistake, that decision is gutsy. It takes a lot to say “don’t worry, God will make it will happen” without anything to visibly back it up. But don’t worry, there are unseen heavenly forces that are ready to stand beside you when you make that kind of faithful commitment.

                I don’t have space left to share my personal experience with this concept, but I could tell you stories of truly miraculous things that I’ve seen when I’ve tried to apply this principle. Let me briefly say that I’ve been in situations where everything seemed completely out of my control, but yet by prayer and by trying to take the same bold attitude as Moses, God stepped in to open doors that seemed locked forever.

                So take heart. If things ever seem beyond your ability, trust in a higher power. True faith can call down the power of God in our righteous causes. If you feel like your faith is lacking because you haven’t seen tons of miracles in your life before, that’s okay—just make the choice to believe. Everybody’s faith had to start with a blind leap into the unknown. My testimony is that God comes through to catch us when we leap into His arms. Choose faith and watch the miracles come for yourself!