"Saul replied, 'When I SAW that the men were scattering, and that you did not come at the set time, and that the Philistines were assembling at Mikmash, I THOUGHT, Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the Lord’s favor. So I FELT COMPELLED TO offer the burnt offering.'" (I Samuel 13:11-12, emphasis mine)
What we see, what we think, when not viewed and considered through the lens of God's true Word, will undermine our faith.
Every. Single. Time.
In such moments, if we don't quickly recognize the error of our earthly mindset, then, like King Saul, our feelings and fleshly compulsions will dictate the moment. And what will result is disobedience equivalent to this king's disobedience when, overcome and overruled by his own thoughts, he did not wait on Samuel as he had been clearly instructed to do; and equal to Eve's disobedience in Eden when, deceived by the voice of the serpent, she spoke and acted contrastingly to God's command.
Such actions are not conducive to the life of faith we are called to live as disciples of Christ.
While He walked this earth, Jesus—"the Word made flesh"— saw, thought, and responded in absolute alignment with God's declared words. His earthly realities were filtered through His purposed thoughts, which were continually in calibration with His Father's voice.
What resulted every time was obedience.
Even weak and weary from hunger in the wilderness, when tempted by Satan to take matters into His own hands, Jesus consistently declared, "It is written. . ." (Matthew 4:1-11). And in the dark suffering of Gethsemane's Garden, when tempted to think differently than the realities of His Father's good and perfect will (evidenced by the words, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me"), still the Savior uttered, "Yet not as I will, but as your will" (Matthew 26:39).
As His devoted followers, you and I must strive to be like Him.
At its foundation, faith is seeing beyond and thinking above our what is, choosing to believe instead what God has declared over our life and our realities. It's keeping an intentional focus, come what may, on our wise Creator's mindset. Even if our flesh feels otherwise.
When you and I practice doing this, the often-bombarding daily temptations to follow our fleshly compulsions will just not get the best of us.
Then, more and more, we will operate under the dictates of the Word's precepts and the Spirit's promptings. More and more, we will personify Christ to a world that needs to experience Him.
A final thought:
It's impossible to rightly see our realities and rightly think our thoughts, apart from knowing what God says. We cannot view rightly and process rightly, apart from regular intake and meditation upon God's Word.
We simply cannot recognize earthly lies without knowing heavenly truth.
And if we do not consistently see and think and recognize rightly, then we will not consistently speak and do rightly.
This is why as a disciple of Christ, it's absolutely crucial that we remain in constant fellowship with the indwelling Spirit of Jesus, through daily ingestion of the Word and authentic conversation with our Heavenly Father.
