Faith is not about everything turning out okay, faith is about being okay no matter how things turn out.

As your faith is strengthened you will find that there is no longer the need to have a sense of control, that things will flow as they will, and that you will flow with them, to your great delight and benefit. ~ Emanuel Tanay (1928 – August 5, 2014: was an American physician, a forensic psychiatrist, and a Jewish Holocaust survivor.)

Gospel Text: (MT 9:27-31)

As Jesus passed by, two blind men followed him, crying out,

“Son of David, have pity on us!”

When he entered the house,

the blind men approached him and Jesus said to them,

“Do you believe that I can do this?”

“Yes, Lord,” they said to him.

Then he touched their eyes and said,

“Let it be done for you according to your faith.”

And their eyes were opened.

Jesus warned them sternly,

“See that no one knows about this.”

But they went out and spread word of him through all that land.

Fear is the opposite of faith. When we have fear, we're blind to the wonderfulness of the Lord, and like the two men in the Gospel reading, we need to be healed.

Those who are blinded by fear are those who cannot see the Lord in the situation that worries them, and thus they have valid reason to live in fear. However, you and I should know better. We have already seen the Lord do much good. We have valid reasons to live in confident hope, despite all the visible evidence to the contrary.

Are you living in this hope? How visible is it? Do you have more hope than fear, more peace than worry?

Most faith-filled Christians experience temporary blindness from time to time. That's simply because we forget to gaze upon the loveliness of the Lord. In the darkness, we need to turn toward the light of Christ, but that's not all. We need to stare at it until it blinds us to whatever we were worried about! The goodness of God must become our focus.

Fear sets in when we get distracted by the attractions of this world, losing sight of what is pure and holy and heavenly. Faith tells us to not be distracted by our trials and hardships. Instead of focusing on the evidence of impending disaster, we need to keep our eyes on Jesus, the reason for our hope.

Victorious hope comes from remembering to keep our eyes focused on Jesus at all times!