Five Pitfalls To Avoid In Life(Four)

Today I continue with the series, Five Pitfalls To Avoid In Life. This is a continuation of a five point series from portions of John Six. This is the fourth point in the series. For a quick recap, please see Don't Live The Expectations Of Others, Living In The Past and Living For Temporal Things.

Here we go with the fourth point:


Living By Sight (Unbelief, Doubt).

They said therefore unto him, What sign shewest thou then, that we may see, and believe thee? what dost thou work?(John 6:30).

Despite witnessing the multiplication of bread and fishes, we still see these folks asking for signs to believe who Jesus is. Their’s is what I described in a previous post as “butter and bread faith“. It's in fact, no faith at all. It's a life lived by sight and subject to what happens around us instead of what God's word says. If you read further down John 6, you will notice how eventually these people walked away from Jesus when He told them who He really is: 

The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? how is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven?(John 6:41-42).

You see, without faith, we cannot handle God's word. When the truth of the word is spoken, it's not always pleasant to us. The depth of the word confronts and rebukes us. It challenges our perspective on life. The word always exposes to us our true nature. Truly, the word is sharper than any double edged sword! It reveals our very thoughts. These guys were pure doubters and pessimists. They asked for a sign, Jesus told them who He truly is and they couldn't take it: 

For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it? From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him (John 6:55,57,60,66).

Hard talk indeed: “my flesh is meat“. But because they didn't take it in faith, they turned away. Scripture is clear about how we must live our lives: "...we walk by faith, not by sight...[For] without faith it is impossible to please [God]..." (2 Corinthians 5:7, Hebrews 11:6). 

Let‘s make it a point to walk by faith, believing and trusting in every word of God. The just, Scripture says shall live by faith...