Faith in the Unseen

Welcome to Hope Mommies In the Word devotionals. Over the next several weeks, we will be narrowing in on specific truths of the gospel to learn how they direct and inform us in our grief. As we study these truths together, we’d love you to use the comments as a place to dialogue with us about what you are learning and share your answers to the questions below. We pray that you hearts will be encouraged as you dig into God’s Word each week with us! 

“Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen Me?
Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’”
John 20:29

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How do we go about believing in Jesus’ salvation and belonging to His kingdom today? To help us, we can think about what it does not mean to believe. It does not mean we merely hope in heaven itself or that we try to live a moral life to reach heaven.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking Me, not because you saw signs,
but because you ate your fill of the loaves.”
John 6:26

The comforts of heaven are a true blessing after loss. But we cannot eat our fill of the incredible comforts of heaven alone to be there in the end. Desiring heaven and believing it exists are not enough—just like being [what we consider] decently good people is not enough.

What is? Jesus was asked that same question.

“‘What must we do, to be doing the works of God?’ Jesus answered them,
‘This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.’”
John 6:29

What can we do to earn heaven, if just believing in heaven is not enough? Jesus says it’s a misguided question. There is nothing we can do to merit heaven.

The work of meriting heaven is accomplished for the believer solely through Jesus Christ. In John 6, we can see that Jesus is God from heaven, and that He is eternal, sinless, better and more real than this world. Outside of Him there is no kingdom, no salvation, and no hope. Jesus gave Himself for those who would come to Him wanting to be free—confessing they sorrowfully deserve condemnation for their sin instead of heaven, humbly laying themselves down to believe His finished sacrifice for their sins, and claiming Him as Lord of their lives forever. By believing in Him, you receive a blessed Master, unending satisfaction, and an eternal hope. Those who believe His salvation and belong to His kingdom now are blessed.

As believers, we have become part of the eternal song of the Lamb that transcends everything we experience here, and have unshakable hope that the kingdom of Christ will one day overcome everything dark and painful about this existence.

Today, we live between these two worlds with the blessed hope that what is invisible is real.

Blessed are you, believer, for tuning your hearts to spiritual realities in the face of earthly devastation.

Blessed are you, believer, for trusting Jesus that your sins that once kept you from Him are completely forgiven through His death—resolving your greatest need.

Blessed are you, believer, for believing that in the fullness of time, His fullness of salvation and kingdom glory will not disappoint you.

Blessed are you to believe in the One you do not see.

And if you have not yet, perhaps you are more ready now than ever to believe in the Jesus you do not see with your eyes because you certainly know, in your soul, how real is the child you no longer see with your eyes. You know that what is real has to be beyond this life. Jesus has spoken into the void and said that this world is not all there is.

“We look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen”
2 Corinthians 4:18a