Seeing is Believing

“I’ll believe that when I see it.”

How often do we hear somebody say that? How often do we say it ourselves? We live in a tangible world. We live by feel, smell, and touch. But we live mostly by sight. We need to see things in order to believe them, because some things seem too good to be true, or they push the boundaries on what we would think is reasonable.

Man will land on the moon, the Red Sox can win the World Series. At one time those things seemed impossible, until they happened and then we believed. Sometimes we see things and we still don’t believe them. On the whole mankind has become very cynical.

We all know people with the reputation for not following through with a commitment or a promise. We say to somebody “So and so told me they would be there at a certain time to help out,” and the person we are talking to says, “Yeah, right. I’ll believe it when I see it.”

In order to build trust with a person, they need to prove to us they are trustworthy. We need to “see” it from him or her. If somebody has a reputation for being untrustworthy it is tough for them to turn their image around. They have to earn our trust.

But Jesus was someone who made many claims people thought were outrageous, and He asked people to believe so they could see. “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” (John 11:40). He turned it around on an unbelieving generation.

Jesus also said, “No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). If we want to see the glory of God in heaven, we must believe in Jesus first.

Believe and See

We can’t see heavenly things, so as cynical people, how can we build trust in what is to come? This is where faith steps into the picture. Faith is “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).

This flies in the face of how things work in the tangible world, and this is where it gets tough for so many people to believe. To believe and then see goes against our cynical nature; it is the antithesis of how we have been conditioned by the world.

This is nothing new. Even Thomas, who traveled with Jesus and saw Him perform miracles, wouldn’t believe Jesus had risen from the dead when his closest friends told him. He had to see the risen Christ for himself and put his fingers in the wounds. He needed to see and to touch. This mentality has been inside of us forever.

The Bible also gives us instances that counter Thomas’ example. There was the Roman Centurion who asked Jesus to heal his servant from a distance. Jesus told the Centurion to go home because his servant was healed. The Centurion did as Jesus told him. He believed Jesus without seeing the results until he got home. Jesus praised the Centurion’s faith. The Centurion believed and then he saw (Luke 7:1-10).

There is also the story of the Syrophoenician woman who had a daughter with an unclean spirit. She came to Jesus without her daughter and asked Him to heal her. After an exchange that showed her great faith, Jesus told her that her daughter was healed. She believed and then she saw (Mark 7:25-30).

How do we get from seeing is believing to believe and you will see? Maybe the leap isn’t as great as we think. Even in this tangible world we do some things by faith alone in our lives.

What is faith if it’s not confidence or trust in someone or something? We have faith that if we work hard we will receive the outcome we want. We have faith that if we plant seeds they will grow. We believe and then we see.

The One Who Makes the Seed Grow

The question is, in whom do we have faith that the seed will grow? In ourselves? Sure, we can nurture the seed, we can water it and fertilize it, but can we make it grow? Can we reach into the darkness of the earth and pull a seedling into the light of heaven?

Billions of seeds grow without our nurturing, so they are being cared for. The rain falls on them, and the sun shines on them. The one who created them is visible through His creation. “His eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made” (Romans 1:20 NIV).

The problem is that the world has taught us to be cynical like Thomas; we want to believe but first we want to see, even though Scripture asks us to walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).

Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed (John 20:29). We should have faith like the Roman Centurion and the Syrophoenician woman. They put all their faith in Jesus and saw the results. We will see the results too if only we will believe first.

Jesus has shown us He is trustworthy. We can believe Him without seeing it first. Put your faith in the one who makes the seed grow and let it germinate in your heart.

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