Enemy of Faith

The very nature of Enemies is that they seek to destroy one another.

The enemy of light is darkness, the enemy of joy is sorrow, and the enemy of great abs are those freshly baked, just out of the oven, chocolate chip cookies that smell too good to pass up! Am I right?

But seriously, you might be surprised to know that the enemy of faith is not lack of faith. Actually, the enemy of faith is sight. In 2 Corinthians 5:7, Paul reminds us that, “We live by faith and not by sight.”

Sight, what we see and call reality, can be a distraction to our faith. In actuality it can shift our faith. It can be what we trust in or believe to be true. But living by sight is the opposite of living by faith.

Often times, we think lack of faith is weakness, but in truth, lack of faith is normal and it’s not the problem.

I am reminded of the desperate father who brings his son to Jesus for healing. The son is possessed, but the father knows who to go to for help. I find it so interesting that in this scene, you see a father who both has faith and lacks faith. He has faith that Jesus can heal his son, yet his son is so bad off that he doubts it is possible. In Mark 9, he says to Jesus the words that I so often, pray to Jesus myself. The man says, “I believe. Help me overcome my unbelief.” I love these honest, humble, and authentic words. They are so true! We don’t have to come to Jesus pretending to be so strong. Who are we pretending anyway, right?

What a beautiful approach: I believe, yet I’m still having trouble believing. Can you help me?

This is so honest and pure. It was the purest cry from the desperate father’s heart.

You see, lack of faith is not offensive to God. It’s not something we have to pretend to Him, to others, or even to ourselves is not in our hearts. Lack of faith is merely an opportunity to exercise (build up, strengthen, gain more muscle of) faith.

When we lack the conditioning needed to run a race or accomplish a goal, we simply begin working those muscles or skills. Faith is the same way. Lack of faith in any given situation is simply an opportunity to workout. To strengthen and to grow.

We don’t need to avoid lack of faith. What we want to avoid is wrong focus…wrong sight. Focusing on the seen over what is unseen, brings worry and fear into our lives.

In 2 Corinthians 4:18, Paul challenges us to fix our eyes on what is unseen. He knows that what is seen, what we see, is distracting. He knows it’s the enemy of faith . Lack of faith is an opportunity to grow in faith, but living by what we see, actually eclipses faith. Often times it just cuts off our faith entirely. Anytime we feel worry or fear, we don’t need to feel guilty, we just need to realize it’s a flag that we are focusing on what is seen.

So what should we do instead?

Simply change our focus to the unseen. How? Through the renewing of our minds. This is the actual definition of the word “repentance” in the New Testament. The Greek word is: METANOIA – meta means “to change” and noia means “mind.” Literally translated, repentance in the New Covenant means To Change the Mind. Repentance is as simple as that – Changing our minds to agree with God who is the author of Life and Truth. It is refusing to agree with the enemy who is the giver of worry and fear.

Repentance in the New Testament (different than what it means in the Old) has nothing to do with behavior and everything to do with what you believe to be true.

In Ephesians 6, Paul encourages us to

“take the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.”

The fiery darts are what we see:

Lies about ourselves

Self Condemnation

Hopelessness

Sickness

Relationship hurt

Fear

Reminders of past sin

Whatever it may be, when we focus on the fiery dart that we see instead of the truth of who God is, we start to lose faith.

Are you believing for something based on what you think you do or don’t deserve? Or are you believing God for something based on who He is, what He is able to do, and how much He loves you?

Religion teaches us to to do good things so that God will find favor with you and bless you. Friends this is not how God operates in the New Covenant. That is Old Covenant thinking. We were not included in that covenant. God has chosen, since Jesus and because of Jesus, to relate to us in a different way. This way is called Grace. Jesus is Grace. He is Grace and Truth (John 1:14). Fully. There is no balance, as if they exist on opposite ends of a spectrum. There’s just the abundance and pure composition of both put fully together in the person of Jesus Christ.

Because of Grace, Our Heavenly Father longs to give us all the blessings we don’t deserve and protect us from all the destruction that we face in this world.

However, when what we see is that we are filthy and blemished and don’t deserve answers to our prayers, this sight eclipses our faith. Remember – sight is the enemy of faith. This eclipses our faith for 2 reasons:

1. Our focus is on self, our behavior, and our attempt at righteousness instead of focusing on Jesus, His behavior, and His gift of righteousness.

2. If we have placed faith in Christ then what we see: filth and blemish in ourselves, is not what God sees. When God the Father looks at us, He sees us as unblemished and holy. He sees us washed by the blood of Jesus at all times. He sees us as righteous. Even in the midst of our sin. So to focus on what we see rather than what is unseen that is true, we are disagreeing with God. This causes our faith to be eclipsed. We need to repent (change our minds).

The biggest question is:

Where have you placed your faith?

Have you placed your faith in your faith, or have you placed your faith in Christ?

Do you believe that God will only move on your behalf if you have done something to please Him? This is placing your faith in your faith and your works. Or do you believe that God will move on your behalf because of who He is? This is placing faith in God.

This is a good question to ask ourselves regularly as we pray.

It takes faith in Christ to believe that we are righteous even when we mess up.

Many of us will realize that when we ask ourselves these questions, we do often place our faith in our faith. This is simply a reminder to change our minds to believe what God says through scripture that He sees, when He looks at us because of Jesus.

If our good deeds could cause God to move on our behalf, that wouldn’t be faith at all. That would be a formula or even a potion, so to speak. Essentially believing that God moves based on what we do or don’t do isn’t practicing faith, it is practicing magic. It’s an attempt to control or manipulate God. It is what religion would have us believe, because religion wants us to focus on ourselves and what we can see and do rather than focusing on Jesus, who He is, and what He accomplished in our place.

Today we will choose to focus not on the seen, but on the unseen. Focus on who God is and what we know about Him by the evidence He has given us in His Word, in His nature, and in our relationship with Him. Today (everyday) is an opportunity to exercise faith…By not living by sight. We trust a God who is good all the time. His character doesn’t change based on our circumstances and it certainly does not change based on our behavior. (Romans 5:8)

Focus on the unseen:

God is Good

He is our provider

He has good plans for us – not plans to harm us

He gives good gifts to His children

He is faithful

He can be trusted

He already knows the future

And He will never leave us or forsake us!

These are the things we know. These are things we are sure of.

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for, being convinced of what we do not see.” – Hebrews 11:1

In Psalm 23, King David beautifully expresses his intimate experience of God’s character and blessings toward him:

“You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. You honor me by anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings.”

God’s character and generosity is the same toward us.

Our Father offers abundant blessings in the presence of our opposition – those fiery darts that we see. He offers a feast of the truth of the unseen. He empowers us through a renewed mind to agree with His truth. As a result, our faith is built and His blessings overflow.

This is beautiful. We don’t deserve His blessings and we don’t have to. That is a testament to who He is. He is faithful when we are faithless.

Today we live by faith and not by sight, by focusing on Jesus and the truth of the unseen, not the lies of what we see.

Our lack of faith is merely an opportunity to grow our faith as we pray today:

Jesus, I believe! Please help me in my unbelief!

What do you see in your life today that is causing you to lose faith? Focus instead on who Jesus is. He is the author, Perfecter, and Finisher of our faith. He is building our faith and He is faithful to help us in our unbelief.

If you have given up believing in something you are praying for because your sight has gotten in the way, maybe today is the day to consider believing again. Your lack of faith is not a problem. Focus on the unseen. Ask Jesus to help in your unbelief.

The sight that is seeking to destroy your faith is easily conquered. Just look away. Look to the unseen. Look to the Truth. Look to Jesus, and your faith will surely increase!

“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.”

⁃ 2 Corinthians 4:18

On your journey consider this…

The more we focus on what we see, the more it becomes what we believe, but the more we focus on the truth of the unseen, the more that truth becomes what we see.

“May your journey bring freedom and your mind be ever renewed to His truth!” – Angel