Faith. The whole of Christianity hinges on this word. Yet do we really have a handle on it?
When going through a rough time, people tend to dish out platitudes: “Just have faith,” they will tell you. But what does that mean?
I can well understand why Jesus would say the following,
“Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are CONVERTED and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Matthew 18:3
Growing up with this verse, I never did understand it. What edge does a child have over an adult? I was merely a child myself, so I was blind to the answer. But having grown up, I suddenly look back and see the change. Growing up is inevitable. Bad experiences are a part of life. But sadly, through disillusionment and disappointments, something happens over time: you lose your innocence. You become more aware of good and evil, and less aware of God. (What damage was wrought that day in the Garden of Eden!)
Things have been very difficult for a very long time. When I was younger, I had an unconquerable faith. No matter what the situation, I BELIEVED IN GOD! See, right there, is the faith of a child! I held onto that faith for a long time. But slowly, over time, I look back, and see how fear has crept in and eroded my faith. Instead of looking at the situation trusting that God is faithful and He knows about it, unbelief and doubt set in. “It’s been so long!” and “will it ever change?” “Is God even here?” These just a few murmurings that reveal an undercurrent of unbelief. It is here that we have a choice: are we going to run with what we see: our experience – what it appears like in the natural? Or are we going to hold on to what GOD says in His Word?
A child believes the Word.
It’s easy because “Dad said.”
Adults are not so easily convinced. It is no wonder that Jesus says we are to be CONVERTED and become as little children…
I’m standing here on my own brink of despair, realizing I need that conversion to take place. I’ve been daunted by my own circumstances for long enough, and it’s time to LOOK UP, to let go, and to BELIEVE again. To believe as I did as a child in a Father in Heaven who not just loves me, but cares. He cares enough to change our circumstances – yes, but He also cares enough not to change them at times. Faith is refined through waiting.
Hebrews 6:12 says that it is through “faith and patience” that we inherit the promises.
If the Lord did not stay His hand for this long, the unbelief that was lurking in my heart would have never surfaced. But the pressure and the wait has revealed it. Not to condemn me, but to expose it so that I can press through and grow into a greater faith.
I’m reminded of Jesus when He rebuked the disciples for their unbelief in Mark 11:22. Our Bibles read, “Have faith in God.” But the Hebrew transliteration says, “HAVE GOD’S FAITH!”
I love the word for “faith” used here. It is the Hebrew word pistis meaning: Conviction, confidence, TRUST, belief, RELIANCE, trustworthiness, and persuasion.
In the face of death and difficulty, do we BELIEVE in God? I thought I did. Or rather, as I have come to see, as a child I did, but I am in the process of becoming converted and BELIEVING AGAIN in the One who Loves me.
What is it to believe in God? You see, we have this misconception that God is like a “fairy godmother” who waves His magic wand and gets us out of difficult circumstances. If that is our concept, we will indeed be disillusioned. To believe in God is to believe in His NAME (John 1:12)… His Name is JESUS. And Jesus means: JEHOVAH IS SALVATION!
Wow!! I want to pause here and break it down. Let’s consider it:
JEHOVAH IS SALVATION...
JEHOVAH IS SALVATION…
JEHOVAH IS SALVATION…
Can we allow that to settle in our hearts? That Jehovah is salvation! That is Who He is… His Nature is salvation. His fingerprint is salvation. If He touches anything, the result will always be salvation. Can we have faith in God today?
Can I believe that God will work His salvation in and through my situation? To trust that if He does not heal me, He is will working salvation. That if I do not get the breakthrough I am hoping for, God is still working salvation in me. To have faith in God is to say, “Father, I trust you…that you will work this situation out for my good.”
“And we know that all things work together for GOOD to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”
Romans 8:28
And when we do that: when we surrender – not to circumstances, but to God – and trust Him in our difficulty – not clinging to our problems, not accusing God, but trusting Him – then it releases God to move.
I’m reminded of when Jesus walked the earth. Each and every time someone reached out to him IN FAITH, there was a response. He never just let them be or said “no.” He worked salvation for them, because they believed Him for it. The lepers broke protocol and reached out in faith. God healed them. The Syrophoenician woman, despite being disqualified, reached out in faith. Her demon possessed daughter was delivered. Jesus could not resist the grip of faith. Blind Bartimaeus had more sight than we as he cried out, “JESUS, SON OF DAVID, have mercy on me!” He was saying, “I know who you are!! You are Jehovah, and you’ve come with SALVATION!”
But those that did not believe never reached out, and remained in their situation.
That comforts me SO MUCH this morning! Keep calling! He WILL HEAR! God responds to faith! It pleases Him!
A verse that has stayed with me the last few weeks is this,
“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”
Hebrews 11:6
It is one thing to “believe that He is,” but the question is, do we believe that He is a rewarder? That He does not just exist (for many, their faith stops here), but that He will RESPOND to those who reach out to Him. So often I look into my heart and have to repent where I fall short and doubt if He will truly reward me for seeking Him. Faith is to believe that He is and that he is a rewarder!!
When we can have this faith – faith in God: Jehovah is SALVATION – it is then that we join the ranks of the heroes of faith:
“By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance… by faith Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed… By faith Moses… forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king… By faith the walls of Jericho fell down… By faith the Harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe… [they] through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, [and] turned to flight the armies of aliens.”
Hebrews 11:8-34
GOD WANTS TO MOVE! He wants to move through and IN our lives! He is just waiting for us to reach out with the faith of a child, and He WILL BRING SALVATION!!
Maybe you are like me today, and you feel like you’ve lost your faith. Let’s be converted. Let’s believe again. Let the child inside you come out… or maybe you have been reaching out… and you are despondent because the answer is delaying. Keep calling. He WILL COME!!
I leave you with this, from the prophet Jonah… Don’t see Jonah, look in the Mirror and see yourself:
Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish’s belly.
And he said:
“I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction,
AND HE ANSWERED ME.
Out of the belly of Sheol I cried (don’t we sometimes feel like that?),
And You heard my voice.
For You cast me into the deep,
Into the heart of the seas,
And the floods surrounded me…
The earth with its bars closed behind me forever;
YET You have brought my life up from the pit, O Lord my God.
When my soul fainted within me,
I REMEMBERED THE LORD;
And my prayer went up to You,
Into Your holy temple…
I will SACRIFICE TO YOU with the voice of THANKSGIVING;
I will pay what I have vowed.
SALVATION IS OF THE LORD.”
So the Lord SPOKE to the fish, [our circumstances] and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.
Jonah 2
Keep waiting. Keep praying. Your dry ground is about to appear…
When going through a rough time, people tend to dish out platitudes: “Just have faith,” they will tell you. But what does that mean?
I can well understand why Jesus would say the following,
“Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are CONVERTED and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Matthew 18:3
Growing up with this verse, I never did understand it. What edge does a child have over an adult? I was merely a child myself, so I was blind to the answer. But having grown up, I suddenly look back and see the change. Growing up is inevitable. Bad experiences are a part of life. But sadly, through disillusionment and disappointments, something happens over time: you lose your innocence. You become more aware of good and evil, and less aware of God. (What damage was wrought that day in the Garden of Eden!)
Things have been very difficult for a very long time. When I was younger, I had an unconquerable faith. No matter what the situation, I BELIEVED IN GOD! See, right there, is the faith of a child! I held onto that faith for a long time. But slowly, over time, I look back, and see how fear has crept in and eroded my faith. Instead of looking at the situation trusting that God is faithful and He knows about it, unbelief and doubt set in. “It’s been so long!” and “will it ever change?” “Is God even here?” These just a few murmurings that reveal an undercurrent of unbelief. It is here that we have a choice: are we going to run with what we see: our experience – what it appears like in the natural? Or are we going to hold on to what GOD says in His Word?
A child believes the Word.
It’s easy because “Dad said.”
Adults are not so easily convinced. It is no wonder that Jesus says we are to be CONVERTED and become as little children…
I’m standing here on my own brink of despair, realizing I need that conversion to take place. I’ve been daunted by my own circumstances for long enough, and it’s time to LOOK UP, to let go, and to BELIEVE again. To believe as I did as a child in a Father in Heaven who not just loves me, but cares. He cares enough to change our circumstances – yes, but He also cares enough not to change them at times. Faith is refined through waiting.
Hebrews 6:12 says that it is through “faith and patience” that we inherit the promises.
If the Lord did not stay His hand for this long, the unbelief that was lurking in my heart would have never surfaced. But the pressure and the wait has revealed it. Not to condemn me, but to expose it so that I can press through and grow into a greater faith.
I’m reminded of Jesus when He rebuked the disciples for their unbelief in Mark 11:22. Our Bibles read, “Have faith in God.” But the Hebrew transliteration says, “HAVE GOD’S FAITH!”
I love the word for “faith” used here. It is the Hebrew word pistis meaning: Conviction, confidence, TRUST, belief, RELIANCE, trustworthiness, and persuasion.
In the face of death and difficulty, do we BELIEVE in God? I thought I did. Or rather, as I have come to see, as a child I did, but I am in the process of becoming converted and BELIEVING AGAIN in the One who Loves me.
What is it to believe in God? You see, we have this misconception that God is like a “fairy godmother” who waves His magic wand and gets us out of difficult circumstances. If that is our concept, we will indeed be disillusioned. To believe in God is to believe in His NAME (John 1:12)… His Name is JESUS. And Jesus means: JEHOVAH IS SALVATION!
Wow!! I want to pause here and break it down. Let’s consider it:
JEHOVAH IS SALVATION...
JEHOVAH IS SALVATION…
JEHOVAH IS SALVATION…
Can we allow that to settle in our hearts? That Jehovah is salvation! That is Who He is… His Nature is salvation. His fingerprint is salvation. If He touches anything, the result will always be salvation. Can we have faith in God today?
Can I believe that God will work His salvation in and through my situation? To trust that if He does not heal me, He is will working salvation. That if I do not get the breakthrough I am hoping for, God is still working salvation in me. To have faith in God is to say, “Father, I trust you…that you will work this situation out for my good.”
“And we know that all things work together for GOOD to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”
Romans 8:28
And when we do that: when we surrender – not to circumstances, but to God – and trust Him in our difficulty – not clinging to our problems, not accusing God, but trusting Him – then it releases God to move.
I’m reminded of when Jesus walked the earth. Each and every time someone reached out to him IN FAITH, there was a response. He never just let them be or said “no.” He worked salvation for them, because they believed Him for it. The lepers broke protocol and reached out in faith. God healed them. The Syrophoenician woman, despite being disqualified, reached out in faith. Her demon possessed daughter was delivered. Jesus could not resist the grip of faith. Blind Bartimaeus had more sight than we as he cried out, “JESUS, SON OF DAVID, have mercy on me!” He was saying, “I know who you are!! You are Jehovah, and you’ve come with SALVATION!”
But those that did not believe never reached out, and remained in their situation.
That comforts me SO MUCH this morning! Keep calling! He WILL HEAR! God responds to faith! It pleases Him!
A verse that has stayed with me the last few weeks is this,
“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”
Hebrews 11:6
It is one thing to “believe that He is,” but the question is, do we believe that He is a rewarder? That He does not just exist (for many, their faith stops here), but that He will RESPOND to those who reach out to Him. So often I look into my heart and have to repent where I fall short and doubt if He will truly reward me for seeking Him. Faith is to believe that He is and that he is a rewarder!!
When we can have this faith – faith in God: Jehovah is SALVATION – it is then that we join the ranks of the heroes of faith:
“By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance… by faith Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed… By faith Moses… forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king… By faith the walls of Jericho fell down… By faith the Harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe… [they] through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, [and] turned to flight the armies of aliens.”
Hebrews 11:8-34
GOD WANTS TO MOVE! He wants to move through and IN our lives! He is just waiting for us to reach out with the faith of a child, and He WILL BRING SALVATION!!
Maybe you are like me today, and you feel like you’ve lost your faith. Let’s be converted. Let’s believe again. Let the child inside you come out… or maybe you have been reaching out… and you are despondent because the answer is delaying. Keep calling. He WILL COME!!
I leave you with this, from the prophet Jonah… Don’t see Jonah, look in the Mirror and see yourself:
Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish’s belly.
And he said:
“I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction,
AND HE ANSWERED ME.
Out of the belly of Sheol I cried (don’t we sometimes feel like that?),
And You heard my voice.
For You cast me into the deep,
Into the heart of the seas,
And the floods surrounded me…
The earth with its bars closed behind me forever;
YET You have brought my life up from the pit, O Lord my God.
When my soul fainted within me,
I REMEMBERED THE LORD;
And my prayer went up to You,
Into Your holy temple…
I will SACRIFICE TO YOU with the voice of THANKSGIVING;
I will pay what I have vowed.
SALVATION IS OF THE LORD.”
So the Lord SPOKE to the fish, [our circumstances] and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.
Jonah 2
Keep waiting. Keep praying. Your dry ground is about to appear…
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