Who's In Charge Here?

I published this some time ago. I thought to post it here.
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 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal (2 Corinthians 4:18).

Thirty years. That's how long it had been since I last saw my childhood home.  I stepped out of the car and walked along the cracked sidewalk toward the aging red‑brick buildings Memories flooded my mind. Privet hedges, probably the same ones I ran through as a child, lined the perimeter of the large grass area separating either side of the three‑story buildings. The gnarled maple towered above the empty playground to my right. I used to hang upside down on those monkey‑bars. 

A little further I turned a corner. There it was: 2210. The bold black numerals above the stone entryway stood out in contrast to the graying concrete. I pushed the green wooden door open and stepped through a time portal. Everything was just as I remembered, yet at the same time seemed so different.  As a child, the cavernous hallway extended for miles. Now claustrophobia settled over me. I stepped onto the black-tiled stairs and climbed two at a time until I reached the third floor landing and stood outside my old apartment. Funny thing, the rust‑brown metal door no longer loomed monstrously large as it did years earlier.

We understand our world through our senses. However, sight, taste, touch, smell and hearing limit us to physical realities. They do little to help us understand important, yet intangible things such as knowing the assurance of God's love, or His comfort in the midst of sorrow. Such things defy our senses because they’re rooted in what Scripture calls faith - the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1).

Perceptions rooted in the natural senses can deceive. Consider when the Syrian army surrounded Elisha (2 Kings 6:14).  When Elisha's servant looked out over the horizon, his stomach turned itself over in knots. The situation appeared hopeless. Defeat seemed inevitable.                      

“Alas, my master,” he cried. “What shall we do?”

But Elisha looked beyond natural vision and watched heaven’s chariots swarm to their rescue. The physical evidence did not change. Syria remained massed for battle. But the spiritual evidence perceived through eyes of faith brought peace where fear reigned.

How ought we as Christians view darkened shadows and cavernous hallways? How shall we view doors that loom monstrously large before us, or enemies massed on our horizons? As Elisha, or as his servant?

What battles do we face? Chronic illness? Loss? Poverty? Divorce?

Satan will try to keep us so busy flailing and cowering for protection that we forget who really is in charge. He wants us to forget though the battle is arrayed against us, the chariots of God encamp around God's people (Psalm 34:7), the God of Elisha still reigns, and victory still belongs to the Lord.