“He who is not every day conquering some
fear has not learned the secret of life.”
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
“You block your dream when you allow your
fear to grow bigger than your faith.”
-Mary Manin Morrissey
I’m learning a lot about faith these days, and I am discovering that I
had a lot of misconceptions about the topic for years. Maybe they were things that I had been taught
or maybe I constructed my own understanding.
However it came about, I was a little off base.
You see, faith is something that does not come easily for me. I have always considered myself to have a
good relationship with God, and I know Him and love Him with everything that I
am. And I trust Him, I really do...until
it comes time to actually follow through on something He asks me to do. I can believe that He is all powerful, and
all resources are His, and He can work through a broken jar of clay until the
day is done, but when it becomes necessary for me to take action, I hit a
wall. That wall is called FEAR.
I have always identified a lot with Moses. If we would have been born during the same
general time frame, we would have been great friends, I am convinced. I take great comfort in his story, because I
learn that someone that struggles with fear can overcome it, and choose to
follow God. Moses needed a lot of help
with his faith, and he frustrated God.
However, God didn’t let him off the hook and allow him to be
mediocre. He still used Moses for an
incredible task, and as it turns out, he is one of the most important
personalities in the entire Old Testament.
Moses had a special calling on his life, and his mother knew that from
the day he was born. Now, his family was
Hebrew, and these people were being held in slavery in Egypt. Pharaoh, the Egyptian ruler, did not like how
fast the Israelites (Hebrew nation) were growing, so he made a law that when
any babies were born, all the boys were to be killed, but the girls could be
kept alive. When Moses’ mother saw him,
she knew she could not allow her son to die, so she courageously hid him for
several months.
A person cannot hide a child for very long, however, and when Moses’
mother saw that she could no longer do it, she put him in a basket that would
float down the Nile, trusting that God would take the child to a safer
place. Long story short, Moses ends up
being found by Pharaoh’s daughter, who decides to adopt him, and Moses spends
his childhood years in the palace. As he
grows up, he starts to realize that he is a Hebrew living an Egyptian
life. One day, as he sees one of his own
people being mistreated by an Egyptian, he decides to take matters into his own
hands and ends up killing the guy and burying him in the sand. Of course, everyone found out about it, and
Moses had to flee for his life to another place. He takes up a nice quiet job of shepherding,
and settles down, probably expecting this to be how he lives out the rest of
his days.
Then God showed up. A bush
bursts into flames, and Moses finds himself in the presence of Almighty God in
the ordinary place of Moses’ everyday life.
God begins to tell Moses how much it is hurting Him to watch the
Israelites suffer under the rule of the Egyptians, and that He has chosen
someone to confront Pharaoh about this injustice and to lead the ENTIRE nation
of Israel out of Egypt and into the land of promise. Who is the lucky person? MOSES!
Ding ding ding...bells are going off in Moses’ head. “Let’s
see....how can I convince God that this is NOT a good decision? How many ways can I tell Him that He is
making a HUGE mistake?”
So the argument begins. Moses
comes up with an excuse, and God counters it.
Moses tells God, “I don’t know Your name, so how can I tell them who
sent me?” God says, “I AM who I AM.” Then Moses says, “What if they don’t believe
me?” God gives him miracles to show
them. So Moses brings up his stuttering
problem. “Surely I can’t talk to the
people, God. I can’t say anything
right.” So God tells him, “I will help
you speak and I will teach you what to say.”
Then Moses comes to the point when he realizes that he can’t outsmart
God, so he resorts to begging: “Oh Lord,
please send someone else.”
The next part makes me laugh.
God is upset with Moses, but He isn’t about to let him off the hook of
his calling. He sends Moses’ brother
Aaron to “help” Moses, but in God’s own words, “You shall speak to him and put
words in his mouth; I will help BOTH OF YOU speak and will teach you what to
do.” In other words, “Moses, you’re not
getting out of this that easily. I want
YOU!”
I spent a lot of my teen years constantly worried that I would somehow
miss God’s calling because I wasn’t paying attention. I have learned, however, that hearing Him is
not the hard part at all. When God
speaks, you notice. That part is
great. The hard part comes in the actual
DOING it.
So now we come to the question: what
is FAITH? The easy Sunday School answer
would be Hebrews 11:1: “Now faith is
being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” However, just like any other part of Scripture,
this verse should not only be read by itself.
It must be understood in the context of the verses surrounding it.
One of the other major topics of the letters in the New Testament is
perseverance. In fact, this is the topic
of the second half of chapter 10 in Hebrews.
The author explains the sacrifice of Christ, and how no more ritualistic
sacrifices need to be made to God anymore for forgiveness. This gives us confidence, that we don’t have
to go through a priest to come to God, and our hearts can be made clean again. He goes on to talk about our responsibility
to keep ourselves pure and close to God, and about His judgment of those who do
not do this. Then he calls to mind all
the times when the Hebrew people courageously stood for God, and finishes the
chapter with these words:
“So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have
done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised. For in just a very little while,
‘He who is coming will come and will not
delay,
But my righteous one will live by faith,
And if he shrinks back,
I will not be pleased with him.’
But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those
who believe and are saved. (vs. 35-39)”
Wow. Ok. I always thought that faith was something
that I either possessed or did not possess.
However, this seems to indicate that faith is an action. It is a lifestyle. It is something we must choose. Faith is choosing to have confidence and to
stand firm. Faith is rising to the
challenge that God presents. It is
pretty strong language that God uses, “And if he shrinks back, I will not be
pleased with him.”
The writer continues in chapter 11 with the famous “Hall of Faith.” This passage tells a history of people who
CHOSE to obey God, even when He asked them to believe and do some crazy things. For example, God told Abraham to leave his
home and travel to a land that God had not yet shown him. He chose to believe that God would give him a
son, even though this was not fulfilled until he was 100 years old. Through faith the Israelites walked on dry
ground through the Red Sea and saw the walls of Jericho fall. These things that happened so long ago sound
strange when placed side by side with the every day lives that we live. However, I wonder what incredible promises
that God might entrust us with if we dared to believe that He can truly do the
impossible?
Verse 6 talks about pleasing God again, “And without faith it is
impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He
exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.”
I love the incredible summary in verses 32-38:
“And what more shall I say? I do
not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and
the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and
gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of
the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to
strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. Women received back their dead, raised to
life again. Others were tortured and
refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, while still
others were chained and put in prison.
They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the
sword. They went about in sheepskins and
goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated—the world was not worthy of
them. They wandered in deserts and
mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.”
It is interesting to me how the author ends this summary with all the
bad things that happened to them. If I
were writing this section, I would have put that part first, saying, “Here is
all the bad, but look at what good came out of it!” However, this is not how the author chose to
write it, and he did it for a reason. These
verses emphasize the incredible truth that in this life, the only thing worth
suffering and dying for is OUR FAITH in God.
Our faith is something we must strive for, fight for, and treat as
precious.
I want to live in faith like that.
I want to be used in mighty ways by God, and be trusted by Him to be
obedient to anything that He might ask of me.
My imagination sparks and flashes with vibrant life when I think about
this, and then suddenly I realize that I am still me. How on earth do I develop faith like that?
Maybe it is not as hard as it sounds.
In my study of the Bible and through my own experiences, I have
discovered eight things that have helped me to stand firm in faith and depend
on God for the future. Some of these
take time and searching, but if faith is as amazing as it sounds, then it is
worth everything that we can give. In
fact, God calls us to live the kind of lives that trust Him in every way, and everything
He asks of us, He is capable of developing IN us. So let’s begin this journey to develop an
unshakable faith in God.
1.
Draw
close to God. This sounds like a
“well, duh” statement, but it is really the most important step in learning to
trust God. It is difficult to trust
someone with your life that you don’t know, and much easier to trust our family
and friends. However, when it comes to
God, we assume that we can go to church on Sundays and hear about Him and even
learn a lot of facts about Him, and somehow we will develop trust and a
personal relationship by osmosis. Relationships
require time and effort, and our relationship with God is no different. Take time out of your schedule to spend with
Him. Think about ways that you have used
to get to know someone and allowed someone to get to know you, and do it. Go on “dates” with God, pour out your heart
to Him, and spend time listening. You
will be amazed at how God can and will speak when your heart is open to hearing
His voice.
2.
Dive into
His Word. Sometimes this step is
most difficult for people who have grown up in church, because they are under
the impression that they have “heard it all before.” Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is
living and active.” You have never been
in the place in your life where you are right now. Dive into His Word again, and be amazed at
the things He will show you. Verses that
you have read a hundred times will take on new perspectives in light of your
present situations and struggles. Go in
with new eyes and an open and teachable heart.
3.
Claim
God’s promises. Please don’t mistake
this for the “trust God and He will make you healthy and rich” philosophy that
for obvious reasons is very popular. God’s
will and plan do not center around you and your comfort. However, as the Friend and Father He is, He
has given us promises that we can learn to hold onto. In your study of the Scripture, keep a list
of the promises that you find. For
example, Joshua 1:5c says, “I will never leave you nor forsake you,” and
Jeremiah 29:13, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your
heart.” As someone learns to trust their
lover through the promises they make, learn to trust the ultimate Lover, who
will never fail you or let you go.
4.
Surrender
your dreams. The summer after my
freshman year in college, I worked at Mount Rushmore National Memorial. For about a month and a half, I was very
angry with God for leading me there. I
did not want to be there. I wanted to be
serving God in a more “exciting” place. Finally,
God used that experience to break me of the illusion that I could serve Him and
still call all the shots in my life. Part
of faith in God is choosing to trust Him and obey Him even when life takes a
detour and leads you to the last place you want to go. Are you struggling with the place God has led
you to right now? Tell Him. However, don’t hold so tight to your
frustration that you can’t let God take it and trade it for His peace. He knows who He has created you to be more
than you do, and the person He dreams for you to be is beyond anything you
could imagine for yourself. Learn to be
content in your circumstances, no matter how painful they may be at the
time. God never wastes time and He never
wastes tears. Pray about how your
situation can best be used by God.
5.
Ask God
to show you His dreams. Did you know
that God has dreams? That is a pretty
amazing concept, if you think about it.
As you are giving Him your dreams and desires, ask God what His dreams
and desires are. The brokenness and pain
in this world affect Him deeply, because He created the world to be good. As He reveals His heart to you, ask Him what
part He has for you to play in the dream.
When you catch the incredible vision of God, no other dream holds a
candle to the possibilities.
6.
Step out
in faith. Many times in life, we are
faced with a decision that includes a level of impossibility. It is a good thing that we have a God with
Whom anything is possible. Especially in
western culture with technology and abundant resources, we are not in the
practice of taking very many steps of faith.
However, God still provides opportunities for faith boosters that often
disguise themselves as impossibilities.
What impossibilities are you facing right now? How is God leading you to take a step of
faith and trust Him?
7.
Develop a
track record with God. About a year
ago, I was facing a tough decision and I was struggling with the way I saw God
leading. On a Sunday morning, I went
down to the altar and through my tears I asked God to help me to want what He
wanted. One of the pastors whom I did
not know well and who was unaware of the situation, knelt beside me and began
to share with me the concept of developing a track record with God. As we trust God with situations and we see
Him come through and provide, we take note of His faithfulness and therefore we
build our faith foundation. We develop
this track record as we commit to long term memory the times when our faith was
rewarded. This helps us to trust God in
future situations. Whenever we are faced
with a new impossibility, our natural reaction is fear and uncertainty. When these times come, it is important to
call to mind the track record of God, and it is easier to trust Him with the
next step. Our steps grow from smaller
to larger as we find God to be faithful.
8.
Learn to
focus on Him. Contrary to popular
belief, faith is not blind. Although
sometimes in trusting Him you cannot see where God is leading, it does not mean
that you are blind. It means that you
have learned to focus your eyes on Him.
When Peter took his eyes off the Lord, he saw the wind and the waves and
began to sink. What did Jesus say to him? “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”
(Matthew 14:31) Over the past few years,
I have struggled tremendously with illness.
It is easy, especially when battling a problem for a long time, to be
worn down and for discouragement to set in.
Our eyes wander off Jesus, and we start to see the crashing waves all
around us. It is not long before we are
overcome. However, our salvation lies in
crying out as Peter did, “Lord save me!”
Our strong God reaches out, grabs our hand, and we are able to stand
again. Our eyes are back on our Lord,
and we focus on Him once more. This is
the essence of perseverance: finding our
focus point and holding fast. As we go
through life, it is imperative that we learn how to run with perseverance, and
we do this by focusing our eyes on God.
He is not surprised by any situation that comes into your life, and just
as Jesus walked with Peter in the storm, He will walk with you in your storms
as well. Keep the faith you have
developed in God by keeping your eyes on Him!
I’m looking for my faith...have you seen it? Yes, I have.
It is in a God who has proven Himself time and again, who has found me
where I am and loves me too much to keep me there. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for the promise you
have given that you will never leave me.
Please develop in me an unshakable faith in You that I may become
everything that You created me to be.
Help me to trust in Your ability to handle any impossibility, that I may
take part in Your dream for the world.
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