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Focusing on the Unseen

Jonathan Edwards, the great American preacher, said, "It becomes us to spend this life only as a journey toward heaven…to which we should subordinate all other concerns of life. Why should we labor for or set our hearts on anything else, but that which is our proper and true happiness?"

I am almost naturally prone to only trust and pursue only the things I can see with my natural eyes. Yet, ironically enough, most of the things I care about, I’ve never directly seen before. Can you put love in a case and marvel at it? Can you see compassion under a microscope? Does friendship have a shape? No. But without these things, our lives would be completely empty; yet, no one has ever seen them. We’ve only felt them deeply and seen them in action. The supernatural is similar. Just because we have not seen God does not negate the fact we have experienced Him deeply and seen Him work. God truly "is not far from each of us” (Acts 17:27), and through the eyes of faith, we can gaze upon our unseen God and be transformed into His likeness.

Edwards later wrote, "I resolve to endeavor to obtain for myself as much happiness, in the other world, as I possibly can." How do we leave worldliness and pursue other­worldliness? How do we get true happiness: the kind that actually satisfies? How do we do that today? Paul's encouragement to us is to focus. Intentionally exercise your grace­given faith, andmake the values of eternity the pursuit of your life. As the hymn states it, “Trust and obey; there’s no other way, to be happy In Jesus — but to trust and obey.”

The kingdom of God is a mighty force pushing out the temporal and establishing the eternal! Life isn't breathing; it is knowing God. And when we obsess over His values, the vividness of our spiritual sight intensifies and our capacity to behold the beauty of the unseen increases! Trust and obey…there is no other way! Lord willing these devotions serve as art in the “museum of the unseen” for you to focus on and be transformed by.