We are ever being taught by God’s Spirit to walk by faith, and not by sight. Faith sees what the natural eye doesn’t. How important it is for us to grasp this key to a steady walk with Jesus. I was reminded of this again when one of the lines sung during a worship service was, “When no fruit is on the vine, I will trust in You.” There is the problem; I want to see the fruit before I trust Him.
“Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Do you have people or situations on your prayer list that are simply fruitless? That is the time to thank the Lord. Are you not seeing the fruit in your life? Marriage? Ministry? Now is the time to thank Him – when no fruit is on the vine. Keep abiding by faith;4 the fruit is on the way. Your God is working5 even while you are asleep.
Habakkuk didn’t have much physical evidence to encourage him. In fact, he had no physical reason to praise God at all. No figs. No fruit. No olives. No grain. No sheep. No cattle. Zero. Yet… “Yet I will” (not might) “rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.” How could he do that? By faith. What are the alternatives? Grumbling? Worry? In every detail of your life, stamp Matthew 6:33 upon it: “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” Take no anxious thought, but instead, “put on the whole armor of God”.
Faith isn’t “mind over matter”; it’s Christ over circumstances. Faith knows that God can do everything…even when no fruit is on the vine.
