CHOOSE! (if you don't choose - you've chosen).

Its a choice walking in the sin nature or walking in the SPIRIT.
Walking by what you see or judging things by what you don't see?

If your life consists of only making decisions on what you see,
then you are no different then the world.

1 Samuel 16:7 (New International Version)
But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance
or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look
at the things man looks at.
Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."

We with JESUS in us and for us, judge and decide on what HE says,
and shows us - not by what we see.

What you see is temporary, what you can't see is eternal.

2 Corinthians 4:18
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.
For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

As Peter only saw JESUS then he (Peter walked on water) when he saw the wind and waves he began to sink? Peter Youngren once said "what does wind and waves have to do with walking on water? Does that mean on a peaceful tranquil day (without waves) you can walk on water?" (Matthew 14:30)

The point is choose what you are looking at..
Choose JESUS, Choose HIS LIFE Deuteronomy 30:19

Did your life all dramatically change instantly when you got married?
Or did it change dramatically over time living the married life?
Did you read books and study (making your spouse an experiment) a topic to learn?
Thats what we do in the church building, we build doctrines
explaining GOD yet never throwing them all away, and
just letting GOD be OUR GOD!

A personal JESUS with us everyday and helping us in every need - EVERY NEED.

You chose the married life, (if you are married) and didn't know all about
it, taking it by faith in love.

When I was a younger guy dating, we would send 'love letters'
to each other, because we couldn't be together as much as we liked.
I would look forward in reading what she wrote and happily wrote back.

But when we got married, we don't write love letters or read them anymore.

I've got her now! Not the letter but the Spirit - the real her!
She is way better 24 hours per day then the letter received once
or twice per month.

Faith works through love! (or expresses itself through love.)
see Galatians 5:6

When anyone in our family starts to get doubtful, crabby, irritated,
angry (the kids or me) we often say - get back to JESUS and
HIS LIFE - choose, because you have chosen to live by circumstances
and what you see and hear by your senses and not by what HE has promised.

Hebrews 5:14
But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have
their senses trained to discern good and evil.

We often say around our house 'Remember who you are'.

We walk by faith and not by sight. 2 Corinthians 5:7

This is the challenge.

Do you see Goliath?
Do you see your mountain?
Do you see the wind and the waves?

Or do you see JESUS and HIS promises?

Faith takes a step in love (where it can't see) based on nothing
you can logically explain but knows when it gets there its going
to be accepted (because of love).

Hebrews 10:36
You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God,
you will receive what he has promised.

It doesn't take perseverance to walk in the sin nature (walk anyway you want).
It doesn't take perseverance to do what the world does and run after all the benefits they sell you.
It doesn't take perseverance to judge things 'as you see them'.

It does take perseverance to believe what HE says despite what you see.

Seeing the invisible and ignoring the obvious.

GOD who calls the things that are not as though they are!

Romans 4:17
the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not
as though they were.

I will end with this famous act of faith by Abraham and indeed he is called
the father of faith.

Romans 4:18-20
Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, "So shall your offspring be."Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah's womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why "it was credited to him as righteousness."

-Amen