This was a brief quote that my wife read me from Rosaria Butterfield’s first book. Rosaria was reading a book by F B Meyer.

Quote from F B Meyer on the difference between faith and unbelief:

“Unbelief puts circumstances between itself and Christ, so as not to see Him . . . Faith puts Christ between itself and circumstances so that it cannot see them.”

This quote is so simple and yet the truth here contained is so profound. This truth really contains the essence of the key to the Christian life. When I was lost in unbelief, I was fascinated and obsessed with circumstances. It may even be said that I was a slave of circumstances, and all my attention was consumed with dealing with or exploiting what my senses presented to me. There was no reality beyond the circumstances and the scenes that my senses presented to me. I was a sensual man, trapped in a world defined by what was “under the sun” (Ecclesiastes), trapped by my circumstances. The glory and the power and the holiness and the beauty and the peace of Christ were hidden from me because my unbelief posed an impenetrable barrier to the Lord of glory. In my state of unbelief, I am the one who directly confronts my circumstances and I am the one who must conquer them.

But when faith comes, then the order of things is radically rearranged. Now Christ has moved near to me and I have moved near to Christ and He has been placed between me and my circumstances. My gaze is now fixed on Him and on His word. Jesus Christ dominates my thoughts and my senses, and He has captured my mind and my imagination. He dominates the landscape from sky to sky, and my circumstances have been moved behind the Lord. Faith sees Jesus Christ as the One who controls and rules, and faith perceives my circumstances through the veil of the Lord’s power and peace and love and sovereignty. The paradigm has utterly changed, and with the change in paradigm comes peace and trust.

If you have placed your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and have moved from unbelief to faith, then realize that your circumstances are now seen through the Lord’s power and through the Lord’s love for you.

SDG       rmb       6/10/2018