“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.
The movie, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, has just been released. For me, though, my favourite Narnia book is The Silver Chair. In this book, Lewis gives an amazing picture of the devil’s subtleties. The witch in the story lives underground and tells the children it was all a dream and there was never such a place as Narnia (heaven) or such a person as Aslan (Jesus). The children are on the verge of falling for the witch’s lies when Puddlegum deliberately puts his foot in the fire. The pain wakes him up to reality. Pain reminds us that we live in a broken world and God’s plan is for restoration.
Lewis has depicted what Leanne Payne talks about in her book, Listening Prayer, where she says, “Evil has an illusory nature. It attempts to win through bluff.” Peter explained that the enemy is like a roaring lion on the prowl (1 Peter 5:8). Lions on the prowl don’t roar because they wanted to surprise their victim. The devil roars because he is bluffing.
Often the devil tries to lull us into fixing our eyes on what is seen as if that’s all there is, rather than following Paul’s instruction to fix our eyes on what is unseen. A pastor friend of ours had a heart attack and actually died before being revived. He spent a few fleeting moments aware that he was in the presence of God. He said it was so beautiful that he didn’t want to come back. What is unseen is the true reality and sometimes it’s pain that wakes us up to it.
