Hebrews 11:13
“These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.”
I have been blessed with good eyes. Years ago when I went in to get my medical certificate for my pilot’s license, they checked my eyes to see if my vision was good. After I took the test, the doctor told me that I should have good vision for many years to come. To this day, my eyes seem to be doing well.
Though my physical eyes are good, what I want more than anything else is for my faith to have good vision. I would hate to think that my physical eyes are good, but my vision of faith is blurred. Just like it takes good vision to see with my physical eyes, it takes good vision to see with faith.
The verse above says that the people mentioned in Hebrews 11 died without receiving the promises, but they saw them “afar off.” In other words, their faith had 20/20 vision. Many of them never saw the promises fulfilled while they were on this Earth, but their faith had the vision to see beyond life. Their faith’s vision is what kept them going when the promises seemed as if they were not going to come.
There are going to be times in life when your vision of faith must be good if you are not going to give up. You don’t want your faith to have blurry vision. You want your faith to see 20/20. You want your faith to be able to see afar off when the flesh can’t see the whole purpose of everything you are doing. There were three things that allowed their faith to have 20/20 vision.
First, they were persuaded that the promises of God were true. When the flesh told them they would never see the promise fulfilled, their faith was convinced that God’s promises would come through. If you’re not convinced that God’s promises are true, and if you waver on the promises of God, then you will find your faith will lose its 20/20 vision.
Second, they embraced the promises of God. Not only were they convinced the promises of God were true, but they tightly held to those promises. When they had nothing else to hold onto, they simply held onto the promises of God. When your circumstances take everything away, hold onto the promises of God. Whatever you do, don’t let go of God’s promises.
Third, they confessed the promises of God were true. This is the key to everything. They didn’t just hold onto the promises privately, but they proclaimed to everyone that God’s promises were true. If you don’t make it public that you believe God’s promises, then you will let go of them when times get tough. By confessing the promises of God to man, you put your credibility on the line.
What is the vision of your faith? Is your faith seeing clearly, or is it getting blurry? If your faith doesn’t have 20/20 vision, then you will eventually give up on God. The only thing that will exercise your faith’s vision is to practice these three steps. These steps will give your faith 20/20 vision.