Airplane pilots learn to fly by sight before learning to follow a plane’s aviation instruments. I’ve read that instrument flying does not come naturally to most pilots. It takes intense concentration and complete trust in the panel of instruments. Pilots, like most of us, are inclined to trust themselves first and foremost.
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Airplane pilots learn to fly by sight before learning to follow a plane’s aviation instruments. I’ve read that instrument flying does not come naturally to most pilots. It takes intense concentration and complete trust in the panel of instruments. Pilots, like most of us, are inclined to trust themselves first and foremost.
There are stories of inexperienced pilots who, finding themselves in thick clouds and low visibility, forced to fly by the plane’s instruments, ultimately give in to the temptation to trust their physical perception instead. Some, who have lived to tell about it, talk about coming out of the clouds upside down, all the while convinced that they had been flying right-side-up. Their lack of faith in their instruments almost ended in tragedy.
We Christians are big on having “faith.” In fact, the name we often use in referring to ourselves is believers – believers in Jesus Christ. We are quick to quote Scripture reciting the necessity of faith. Verses like, “The just shall live by faith,” and “For it is by grace you have been saved through faith. . .”
Yet despite all our talk about faith, we may still struggle with the temptation to trust ourselves more than God and to believe only in what we can see. We say we believe that Jesus has a wonderful plan for our life, but when His plan conflicts with ours, whose plan do we follow?
Hyrum Smith in his book The 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management, shares an observation from leadership and business that carries over to this discussion of belief and faith in our relationship with God. Smith noted, “Your behavior is a reflection of what you truly believe.” Faith is evidenced by life. What we truly believe will impact what we do. What we truly believe is demonstrated by how we live. That’s true in business. It is also true in our relationship with God.
Faith is an action word. It’s not just something that happens in our head. Faith is believing something so strongly that we act upon what we believe. The invitation of Scripture is for we who claim to have faith to be faithful: to follow Jesus in word and deed, even when we can’t see.
