Psalm 119:18 “Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law.”

If there were three facets to faith they would be,
hearing, seeing, and understanding.

Faith comes by hearing the Word of God, but what if we do not understand what it is that we are hearing? It helps if we can see what it is that we are hearing. But even then, if we do not recognize what it is that we are hearing and seeing, then our understanding is still unfruitful.

So that faith works something like this: when we read a promise from the Word of God, we hear it, and we know that we heard it because we were able to picture its fulfillment in our mind’s eye, so that we fully understand the fullness of the promise and what it entails.

Ephesians 1:8-9 “Which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence (understanding), having made known to us the mystery (He revealed to us that which we could not see at first) of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself.”

That is exactly what the Psalmist was praying for in our opening text, he was praying that God would reveal to him the wondrous things that are hidden in the promises of God from our natural human eyes, for the Psalmist believed that by seeing them through the eyes of faith that he would have a better grasp to understanding the promises and receiving their fulfillment in his own life.

The enemy of faith is the world! Let me explain:

1 Corinthians 13:13 “And now abide (remain) faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

In the letter to the Hebrews God promises that He is going to shake everything in heaven and earth that can be shaken, so that the only things that remain after the shaking would be those things which are eternal.

Hebrews 12:26-27 “Whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, ‘Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.’ Now this, ‘Yet once more,’ indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.”

So that after all it is said and done and the final shaking comes, faith will still be standing, that is the faith that is based on the things which are eternal, for all the things which are made will one day be removed.

1 John 2:17 “And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”

Faith that is interdependent of things which are made is not real faith, but a counterfeit, and it will not suffice in the hour of testing.

Real faith sees the futility of man-made theories and teachings and rejects them outright as nonsense.

Psalm 119:19 “I am a stranger in the earth; do not hide Your commandments from me.”

The ground on which the Psalmist stood as he asked God to open his eyes of faith, was the fact that he considered himself a stranger to this world system, which is the enemy of real faith.

So, then we must ask this question: What is the foundation of real faith?

Psalm 119:24 “Your testimonies also are my delight and my counselors.”

God’s testimonies are found in His Word, the Bible, and faith is the tool that allows us to hear, see, and understand God’s testimonies.

If I may, let me ask you a personal question: On whose counsel do the tenants of your faith rest? My intentions are to provoke you, the reader, to take a healthy look at the condition of your faith right now.

We are living in unprecedented times, the longer I live the clearer I see the worldwide conspiracy against the children of faith, we are facing some really powerful forces who are well trained and well equipped to stir doubt and to promote confusion against the Word of God in all levels of society.

We better make sure that our faith rests on a solid foundation that cannot be moved no matter how hard they try to move us from our faith.

Jude 3-4 “Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The tactics that our enemies employ against us are couched within the tenants of reproach and contempt.

Psalm 119:22 “Remove from me reproach and contempt, for I have kept Your testimonies.”

Contempt comes from without, and reproach comes from within.

The world sets the standard, when lawlessness prevails, they treat the children of faith with contempt.

When morality prevails, they creep in unnoticed and corrupt the freedoms that moral virtues afford to those who live by then, and through manipulative means of reproach they try to shame those of us who adhere to what is real and lasting faith, by calling us derogative and demeaning names. And as you well know, there is a lot of that going on out there right now against the children of real faith.

However, when we keep God’s testimonies, that is we live our lives through the counsel of God’s Word, we become immunized against the effects of the inward reproach and outward contempt that our enemies continuously hurdle against us, for we judge ourselves in Christ.

1 Corinthians 2:15 “But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one.”

Why does the world hate us so much? Because we believe the Word of God, and as long as we continue to believe in the Word of God, they know that they cannot influence us into their herd mentality.

But what they fear more than that is that we become an influence to others, as we expose their manipulative tactics, and it makes their job of leading the world astray much harder as long as we continue to walk by faith in the Word of God.

Psalm 119:23 “Princes also sit and speak against me, but Your servant meditates on Your statutes.”

The most powerful man in the world, who claims to be one with us in the faith, continuously reproaches the children of faith with derogatory names and personal attacks, even using his great seat of power to deny our constitutional right to free political expression, just as the Word of God predicted three thousand years ago in His Word.

How is that for relevancy today. That is why we need to meditate continuously on the clearly defined statutes found in His Word.

And if we are having trouble understanding what we see and hear revealed in His Word, then we need to ask Him to open the eyes of our understanding so that we can put our faith and trust in His Truth.

Psalm 119:25 “My soul clings to the dust; revive me according to Your word.”

The dust is this world system that we have to live in that clings and affects the operation of our souls, for it interferes with our ability to hear, see, and understand through the eyes of faith the promises that we have inherited in the Word of God.

Our open rejection of this world system is what opens the door for the revival of our faith that leads the Word of promise right into our hearts.

1 Peter 2:15 “For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.”