A VISION FOR LIFE
Proverbs
29:18 Where
there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he
who keeps the law.
Martin Luther wrote: “When once we lose sight of
God, we begin to be reckless, we cast off certain restraints; we cast off
praying, we cast off the vision of God in little things, and begin to act on
our own initiative. If we are eating what we have out of our own hand, doing
things on our own initiative without expecting God to come in, we are on the
downward path, we have lost the vision.”
Ideals and visions are two different things. An
ideal is a standard or principle of belief. It is a statement which can be true
or false. But it is just that, a statement. Jonah believed that God was a God
of justice and of mercy. But that ideal understanding did not move him to obey
God and go to the people of Ninevah with God’s message. He believed an ideal
but had no vision.
A vision is something that we can see in our mind’s
eye. It is a picture or movie of an event, scene or activity. In a vision we
see lived out a belief with a moral action. This is not the same as an ideal.
Visions are the outworking of a belief. It is obedience to a command. Vision is
a reality that draws us into the participation of God’s plan for our life and
the lives of others. Without a vision of God there can be no fulfillment in
life. We die spiritually.
