Believing without seeing

I am in the unenviable position of having people around me who care very much about what I think about them. With a singular comment I can make them feel good about themselves and they will be walking on air all day, or they will be devastated. Unfortunately I do not always think about things before saying them, and do not always convey my true feelings accurately. Perhaps I am in a surly mood, or I do not give it adequate thought, or improperly convey my true feelings on the matter, or more likely my warped sense of humor is in full throttle, and I say something that I think is amusing and the person on the other end is deeply hurt.

Ouch! I do not want to hurt anyone’s feelings and would prefer to be around people with thick hides that appreciate my perverted sense of humor. When you think about it, those around you are affected the same as those around me.


I can relate to how they feel, because in my early life no one had any confidence in me and consequently it often made me doubt myself. I will never forget when I decided to go into business for myself. I quit a well-paying job as plant manager of a good company with benefits and launched a business with no start-up capital. I was young, excited, and wildly optimistic and was ready to set the world on fire. My wife did not share my enthusiasm; in fact she did not even speak to me for three weeks after I announced my plans and told her I just quit my job. My father and brother flat out told me I was crazy to quit my job as did all of my friends.

One person had faith in me and that was my Mother-in-law. She had total faith that I would succeed and I can picture her telling me in a strong voice: “By golly if Bob says it is going to happen then that is all there is to it, it is GOING to happen!”

Her complete faith in me is deeply burned into my soul. Bless her heart, she has long since gone to be with the Lord, but she did live long enough to see some of my dreams become reality and she saw my new business succeed and succeed wildly before she went on to her mansion in paradise. I love her very much to this day and look forward to being united with her in heaven again and I hope my house is near hers.

“Seeing is believing” is the old saying and that is comparatively easy compared to believing and then seeing. Having faith in someone even before you see is spectacular, and means so-o-o-o much to those involved, particularly your children.



It means everything to God too. Christians must have faith in God. The Bible states in Romans 1:17 that God is revealed through faith. If you are a thinking person and the least bit objective, there will be things that you see that reveal and verify God’s existence, but it is unlikely you will have a face to face encounter with God or even a burning bush. We must accept Him by faith. My experience in life in relation to how much it did mean to me to have my mother-in-law believe in me even though she had not seen anything yet, gives me a semblance of how God must appreciate those who have faith in Him, even though we cannot meet face to face as Moses did.

The Bible tells us that Jesus stands at the door and knocks. He wants to come into our lives, but through faith we must allow Him to take over our thoughts and lives. He does not want robots, and that is why we have a free will. Your faith in God will be rewarded.

How can you enhance your faith? The Bible states by hearing the Word of God. Study the Bible, attend church and Sunday school, associate with other Christians and study with them and have an active prayer life.



Romans 10:17

So then faith comes by hearing,

and hearing by the word of God.