Eyes of Faith

One of the common slogans among men and women who are serving long sentences in federal prison is “You’ve got nothin’ comin’.”

It’s a sad, hopeless statement, robbing the inmates of what little hope they have left. “You’ve got no income; your kids are em­barrassed to say they are related to you; your wife isn’t coming to see you and will probably divorce you before too long; nothing is going to change in your life. Don’t expect anything better. You’re getting what you deserve. You’ve got nothing coming.”

Sadly, many people “on the outside” are living behind self-imposed bars, in prisons of their own making, and have succumbed to the same type of thinking. This is the best you can expect. It isn’t going to get any better, so you might as well sit down, keep quiet, and endure it.

No! You can break out of that prison! The door is unlocked. All you have to do is start expecting good things in your life and start be­lieving God for a great future. You do have good things coming!

Eyes of Faith

You must look through your “eyes of faith” and start seeing yourself as happy, healthy, and whole. That means even when your situation looks bleak, when you’re tempted to be discouraged or depressed, you must encourage yourself by praying, “God, I know that You are in con­trol, and even though this looks impossible, I know today could be the day that things turn around. Today could be the day You restore my marriage. This could be the day You bring my child home. Today may be the day my business begins to prosper exponentially. This could be the day I see my miracle.”

Then keep believing and watching for those good things to come to fruition in your life. You must make a conscious decision, an act of your will, to maintain an attitude of expectancy and keep your mind filled with thoughts of hope.

This could be the day I see my miracle.

“What if I do all that and it doesn’t work?” you may be asking.

What if you do that, and it does work? Whom are we kidding here? What do you have to lose by keeping your hopes alive?

I can guarantee you that your difficult situation will never improve as long as you stay in a negative frame of mind. But if you’ll develop an attitude of faith and expect events to change positively, then at the right time, that situation will turn around. Admittedly, sometimes good things don’t happen as quickly as we would like, but instead of slouching into negative expectations, we must keep our minds set on God.

Your attitude should be, “God I know that You are at work in my life. Although the miracle I’ve been watching for didn’t happen today, I know I’m one day closer to it! I’m one day closer to my an­swered prayer, and I’m not going to get upset. I’ll not allow myself to become discouraged. I know that Your timing is perfect, so I’m going to stay in an attitude of faith and keep trusting You to do what is best.”

In his late forties, Brian felt as though everything in his world was falling apart and coming down on his shoulders. His business went bankrupt. He lost his family through divorce. His health was deterio­rating. At one time, he had been an extremely successful man. But now, for many years he had been merely existing, living with no joy, no peace, no zest.

One day, a friend who cared enough to level with Brian told him, “I love ya, buddy, but you need to quit focusing on all the negative; stop looking at everything you’ve lost and start looking at all you have left.” Brian’s friend challenged him, “Start believing that things are going to change for the better, not because you deserve it, but simply because God loves you that much!”

The friend’s words resonated with Brian’s spirit and slowly but surely, he began to take the advice to heart. He established fresh pat­terns in his life. He decided that every morning before he got out of bed, he was going to write down tell things for which he could be thankful. All day long, he constantly thought about that list. He con­tinued this habit day after day, week after week, month after month.

What was Brian doing?

He was re-programming his mind. He was breaking those old negative habits, and he was developing an attitude of faith. Within a matter of months, his situation began to turn around. First, he got his joy back. Then his health and vitality returned. He soon got his job back and, eventually, many (If his relationships were restored. Most important, he got his life back!

Because he moved his expectations higher, he was able to escape that old negative mentality. He stopped focusing on what he didn’t have, on what he had lost, on his past mistakes and failures. Instead, he started dwelling on the goodness of God. He filled his mind with thoughts of hope, faith, and victory. He developed a fresh vision, expecting things to change for the better. Sure enough, that’s when his life turned around.

Many people sabotage their expectations by negative comments. You know the type:

“Well, nothing good ever happens to me.
“I don’t think I’ll ever get married. I haven’t even had a date in ten years!”
“I might as well file bankruptcy; I’m so swamped with debt and bills, I can’t see any other alternative.”
“I don’t see how I could ever be happy again. I’ve just been through too much pain in life.”

Avoid such statements at all costs because your actions will follow your expectations. Low expectations will trap you in mediocrity. You must think positive thoughts of victory, thoughts of abundance, thoughts of favor, thoughts of hope; good, pure, excellent thoughts.

The career of the Old Testament prophet Elijah offers some fasci­nating insights. Elijah experienced numerous miracles, and his under­study, Elisha, witnessed many of them. As Elijah neared the end of his life, he asked Elisha what he would like to have from his mentor.
“I want a double portion of your spirit,” Elisha replied boldly “I want to be twice as powerful, twice as strong, twice as blessed. I want to see twice as many miracles.”

Interestingly. Elijah didn’t rebuke his underling. He simply re­sponded, “Elisha, you’ve asked a very difficult thing. Nevertheless, if you can see me when I’m taken from you, it shall be done unto you. But if not, it shall not be so.” Certainly, in a literal sense, Elijah was telling Elisha, “If God allows you to see it, you can count on your request being granted”; but we can’t help but wonder if Elijah was also saving, “If you can see it, then you can be it. If you can visualize it in your heart and mind, seeing it through the screen of God’s Word with your ‘spiritual eyes,’ it can become a reality in your life.”

God is extremely interested in what you see through your “spiritual eyes.” Seven times in the Scripture, He asks, “What do you see?” God is saying something similar to us today. If you have a vision of victory for your life, you can rise to a new level. But as long as you have your head down, with your gaze on the ground instead of on your possibil­ities, you run the risk of moving in the wrong direction and missing out on the great things God wants to do in and through you. It’s a spir­itual principle as well as a psychological fact: We move toward what we see in our minds. If you can’t see it, it is not likely to come to pass in your life.

What about you? When you look into your future, what do you see? Do you see yourself getting stronger, healthier, happier, your life filled with God’s blessings, favor, and victory? If you can see it, it can come to pass.

Bill and Cindy, some friends of mine, moved to a new city several years back. At the time, Bill worked two jobs to make ends meet while Cindy stayed at home with their young children. It was a difficult time in their lives, and they barely eked out enough money to pay the rent and buy food. Feeling like failures, they were tempted to give up and move back home. It would have been easy for them to allow attitudes of defeat to weigh them down, but they didn’t do that. Instead, during that tough time they did something extremely unusual.

Many nights after Bill came home from work, rather than sitting around in their little apartment feeling sorry for themselves, they dressed up, got in the car, and drove down to one of the big fancy ho­tels in the city They didn’t have enough money to pay for parking at the hotel, so they parked far down the street and walked back to the hotel. They’d go inside the gorgeous facility and just sit in that elegant hotel lobby and dream. Bill later told me, I wanted to expose myself to an atmosphere of success. I wanted to be in a place where I could keep my hopes up. I wanted to get into an environment where I could dream of victories.”

What were they doing? They were expanding their vision, focusing on what they could be. They were looking beyond where they were to where they wanted to be, and in doing so, they let faith rise in their hearts. Cindy said, “Many times, we’d sit there in the lobby literally for hours at a time, talking and dreaming, and when we’d leave, our faith and vision were renewed.”

Perhaps you, too, need to change your environment. Quit sitting around feeling sorry for yourself. Quit worrying about how nothing is ever going to get better in your life. Instead, go find somewhere you can dream. It may be in a church; it may be along the banks of a stream or at a park. Find someplace where you can dare to dream big dreams; a place where your faith will be elevated. Get out of that negative en­vironment and get into an atmosphere of victory, where people build you up rather than tear you down. Find a place where people will en­courage you and challenge you to be the best you can be. Find a place where people inspire you to reach for new heights. Friend, you have to envision good things happening to you before they ever will.