Starting Right
Starting Right is a 5 minute Day Starter to help keep you motivated, encouraged, and focused throughout your day. DannyMac is a pastor, teacher, motivational speaker, husband, and father. His years of leading and training people have given him vast experience in helping individuals to accomplish change in their lives and meet their goals. He can help you set the course for your day by offering practical advice from God's Word in a positive and fun way. There is no better way to begin your day than by Starting Right with DannyMac.
Starting Right
Faith Beyond Sight
Have you ever wondered what it really means to "live by faith, not by sight"? This morning, I dive into this challenging concept from 2 Corinthians 5:7 through two powerful stories that illuminate this spiritual principle in vivid, practical ways.
First, I share the tragic story of John Kennedy Jr.'s fatal flight to Martha's Vineyard in 1999. Kennedy, who held only a Visual Flight Rating, experienced spatial disorientation when visibility deteriorated. Unable to trust instruments over his senses, he crashed into the ocean.
The biblical parallel comes from 2 Kings 6, where Elisha and his servant were surrounded by enemy forces. While the servant panicked at what he saw, Elisha prayed for spiritual eyes to be opened, revealing the hillside filled with God's fiery army of protection. What looked like certain defeat from human perspective was actually divine protection from God's perspective.
My challenge to you today: Get into God's Word, learn His promises, and choose to trust what He says over what you see or feel. Nothing is beyond His control. Join me again tomorrow as we continue starting our days by starting right.
Good morning. I am Danny Mac and you're listening to Starting Right. Every weekday morning I'm going to be here to share stories of life and hope from God's Word. So grab a cup of coffee, sit back and relax for the next five minutes as I help you start your day by starting right.
Speaker 1:I'm sure most of us have heard the verse from 2 Corinthians 5, verse 7. It says For we live by faith and not by sight. It's a verse that can cause some confusion sometimes because we don't know how to do that. How is it even possible to live by faith and not by sight? In fact, there are those who have said it cannot be done. Let me give you a couple examples of how this works.
Speaker 1:This is a story about John Kennedy Jr, the son of former President Kennedy. John Kennedy Jr was flying with his wife Caroline out to their estate in Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts back on the early evening of July 16th 1999. Something happened along the way and the plane crashed into the ocean and they were killed. The National Transportation and Safety Board concluded that Kennedy suffered along the way something what they call spatial disorientation, in other words, he was not able to identify where he was and what was going on, and that occurred because he couldn't see what was happening around him. The dust had come in, the clouds had started to descend a little bit and his visual orientation was no longer available to him. Kennedy's license was what they call a VFR license. He had a visual flight rating, which meant that as long as he could see where he was going, he was permitted to fly, and in the conditions that there were there as he started out, it was fine. So he was still flying under that approved rating when he crashed his plane, but in reality he couldn't see where he was going.
Speaker 1:There is another flight rating. It's called IFR. It stands for instrument flight rating, and a person with instrument flight rating does not fly based upon solely what they can see, but they rely more heavily on the instruments that there are in their airplane. That's what commercial pilots do, that's what pilots of fighter aircraft and military aircraft do. That's what many pilots of private planes do if they have the instruments aboard their planes. You have an instrument flight rating that tells you what to believe instead of what you are seeing with your eyes.
Speaker 1:One of the things that can happen very easily, particularly if you're flying in darkness or in cloud, is that you can become completely disoriented and feel that the plane is turning or it's falling or it's climbing, when in reality it's not. And at those points in time you must trust your instruments. You must put complete faith in what you are being told, even though you can't see it. Even though you can't see it, even though you can't feel it, and even though your feelings may be completely against what it is saying, you must believe what it is telling you in order for you to be safe.
Speaker 1:We have an example of this as well in the book of 2 Kings 6, starting in verse 15. When the servant of the man of God got up early the next morning and went outside, there were troops, horses and chariots everywhere. Oh sir, what will we do now? The young man cried to Elisha. Don't be afraid, elisha told him, for there are more on our side than on theirs. Then Elisha prayed O Lord, open his eyes and let him see. The Lord opened the young man's eyes and when he looked up, he saw that the hillside around Elisha was filled with horses and chariots of fire. When Elisha prayed, the young man saw what it meant to live by faith, that, although they were surrounded by the enemy that they could see. What they were not aware of until his eyes were opened was that the army of God was surrounding the army that was surrounding them.
Speaker 1:When we talk about living by faith and not by sight, it is saying, god, I will trust what you say, not what I see or what I feel, no matter what I'm seeing around me, and God, you, right now, are surrounding those who I feel who are surrounding me. Nothing is out of your control. Today, I will trust you. So today, gang, let me challenge you Get into God's Word, learn what it says about His truth and His promises to you, and let's live by faith and not by sight. Have a great day, gang. We'll talk again tomorrow. Thank you for listening today and I invite you to join me Monday to Friday, right here on Starting Right with Danny Mac.
