the power of faith,
rules to guide our lives,
the fruits of the Spirit,
the beatitudes of Christ,
rest from our duties,
the days of creation,
the miracle of the loaves,
the truth of the Gospels,
prayers at Gethsemane,
the veil torn in two,
and His Son to save us from our sins.
Faith is a powerful part of my life. Faith is what keeps me walking when I don't want to move a muscle. Faith drives away fears that threaten to overtake me and consume my thoughts. Faith powers me to lean on a risen Savior when my strength has failed me.
Hebrews 11:1 NASB -- The Triumphs of Faith
11 Now faith is the assurance (substance) of things hoped for (expected), the conviction (evidence) of things not seen.
In the verse above, I've placed in parenthesis the deeper meanings of the words that are often marked in my Bible.
For me, faith reminds me that God made promises in the Bible and that I can expect Him to keep them, even if I don't see them working. I am assured they will happen. My faith also says that although I may design how something can come about, God's infinite wisdom is greater and He may have a different way for something to occur. I need to have faith that His way is the right way, even if I don't understand why.
Having faith is an important part of being a child of God.
Hebrews 11:6 NASB
6 And 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 seek Him. We need faith to please God. We need faith to believe He is who He says He is. And we need faith to know that He will stand by His promises in the Bible. Since He's likely to never speak to me with His voice, I need faith to "hear" His call on my life and His direction to order my steps.
And even a small faith is powerful.
Matthew 17:20 NASB
20 And He *said to them, “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you. Somewhere, a while back, I read that the people of Jesus' time viewed mountains as having "deep roots" into the earth, and as such the idea of "moving mountains" was equivalent to the impossible. I'm not educated in theology enough to know if Jesus was alluding to that deeply held belief here, but I do like what he's saying.
Even a very small faith can do impossible things. Faith can do things human hands and means cannot. And just imagine that, as that faith grows, it will do other greater "impossible" things.
I'm not going to pretend I have this "Superman-like" faith that never wavers. Oh boy, does mine waver. My faith is battered by the reality of life after Benjamin's death. My faith is battered by sleeplessness, by regrets, by memories that haunt me. But the truth is that when I feel beaten, I can cry out for strength and God *will* answer. He wants to help us strive to grow toward His Son Jesus, so that He can do great works through us.
It just takes faith.
My prayer tonight is simple: I pray that you will feel a great strengthening of your faith. I pray that your mustard seed of faith will put forth small shoots, that become larger shoots, until the birds of the air can sit in its branches. And I pray that, as the LORD works in your life in whatever what He's chosen, that He will bless you and keep you at peace. <3
*Graphic at beginning of page is from the website The Graphics Fairy. All credit for the lovely image belongs to them.
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