II Cor. 5:6-8 “Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.”
In the midst of uncertainty such as we are facing in the World today, it is good for us to put everything back into perspective concerning what really matters in life. When we consider the ministry of the Apostle Paul, we realize that his life was one of constant uncertainty. Would he be sleeping in a comfortable bed tonight or one provided by the Romans? Would he be lauded with laurels and hailed as a god or laughed at with livid cruelty and stoned as a dog? Would he get a report today of another preacher gone rogue along with folks that he once held as his dearest friends marching lockstep to the wolf’s apostasy? Would there be any other church besides the Philippian congregation that would help supply his needs? Of course it was not just the Apostle Paul who faced constant uncertainty but just about every believer in that time, as it is for many to this present hour.
What are you seeing today? If all you can see is what is going on around you, then you are not going to be very confident. If your confidence is in what may or may not happen today or tomorrow to this earthly body then you are going to be troubled indeed. I love the Lord and I love what He has done for us! He has given us eyes to see (for we walk by faith, not by sight) things as they really are and with that a confidence that is always abiding. How are things in reality? Well, we are at home in the body and thus we are absent from the Lord. As long as I am here, I am not there. I don’t know about you, but that reality is not quite the Balm of Gilead that really inspires confidence to the soul. So, on the other hand, we are confident and willing to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. As soon as I am there, I will not be here! Now there’s the balm being applied and a surge of confidence to keep pressing on until He calls me to His presence. Are we really willing to be absent from the body? Not because I don’t want to be here but because I truly want to be there. Why are we so concerned about getting sick? Believers shouldn’t be. Our Lord holds the keys of life and death. Our times are in His hands. We must learn to see things as they really are and not hold onto this life with such a grip that it keeps us from confidently walking by faith and not by sight. For the things which cannot be seen are eternal and we have a glorious future awaiting us when we depart from this corruptible, mortal temple of flesh and are clothed upon with that new house we will receive from our Lord very soon! Look up and see things as they really are and walk confidently by faith.