Got Faith?
You see, real faith is still something more. It is not just knowing, even being convinced, that something is true, but accepting it as true for you. Not true for the church, not true for a preacher, not true for your parents, not true for your friend, but true for YOU.
Let me illustrate a story. There was once a famous daredevil named Blondin who regularly thrilled audiences by walking a tightrope stretched across Niagara Falls with a man riding on his shoulders. One day just as he was about to start across, he asked a man in the audience if he believed that he could do it. “Yes,” the man replied you can do it! He then asked him if he were sure that he could do it. ‘Yes, I’m really sure that you can do it!” “Good,” said Blondin, “because my regular man isn't here today and I need you to ride over on my shoulders.” Now the man was faced with the real issue of faith, he had said that he had believed, but was he willing to stake his life on it? You see, faith is not faith until its all you’re holding onto.
Do you remember when you were a little kid and your father or mother was teaching you to swim. The first step was to get you into the water. I can remember going through this with my own kids. I would get in the water and hold out my arms and say “jump!” Although my kids were at first afraid, soon trust in me replaced that fear and they jumped, believing that I would catch them. Let me began it home for you... when your kids(were/are 2-5 years old), when it was time to go in the car, they didn't question your ability to drive the car, the safety precautions.... no they (had/have) child like faith, like the Bible talks about.... they trust YOU!!
I just though of another example of faith....
If I take a chair and ask you if it will hold me up what will you say? I can study this chair and know that it is solid and strong. I can watch other people sit in it and come to the conviction that it is able to hold me up. But it will never hold me up until I do what? Until I sit in it. Even if I am not so sure, but I still take a seat and it is a strong chair, it will hold me up. That's Forsaking All I Take Him!
It is to be like a child who hears her father say, " JUMP!" and she trustingly obeys, throwing herself from a height into HIS waiting arms.....
We live by faith, everyday without even thinking about it. You got up today believing that your clothes would be in your closet, that breakfast would be served, and that there would be a a job there this morning. You did all of this up till this moment without questioning any of it. Yet, someone could have stolen your clothes, the job could have burned down, and you might not have shown up. Thieves, fires, and no-shows happen every day - they just don’t happen to us. You also take risks when you exercise this faith without thinking. For example, you go to doctors whose names you may not even know, receive prescriptions you can’t read, take it to pharmacists you’ve never seen, and take the medicine he gives you without understanding what’s in it. You do all of this without examining the credentials of the doctor, questioning the validity of the prescription or the accuracy of the pharmacist or investigating the effects of the medicine. You could be killing yourself, but you never think about it twice! You simply trust that things are as they should be, and this is the experience of faith. But the kind of faith we use every day is not sufficient when in it comes to the big decisions in life (think about).
There has to be something more "personal" to deepening ones belief, specially when life has a way of driving our faith dangerously close to the edge. What we expect from God so often seems to contradict what we experience in life. We find ourselves wanting to ask: If God is good, then why did this happen? If God is all-powerful, then where is He now? If God loves me, why am I not happier? Richer? Why don’t I have fewer problems and more peace? If God is pleased with me, why don’t I experience more pleasure?
Unanswered questions like these threaten our enthusiasm and heartfelt commitment to our beliefs. We find our faith growing more stoic, our view of God less emotive. We are left to slug it out on our own, believing that the only relevant resources are in this present world.
I believe that man is fraud, and if we place our faith in man, we are bounded to be let down, so this is were we have to dig deep and ask what is the lesson in not getting what we want, are we being protected from a Higher Power, in being supplied with what we need.
We have assumed that this world should be a pleasant and friendly place and that the answers to the troublesome questions of life can be found in the temporal realm. We have assumed that the answers to life’s dilemmas lie somewhere within us, among us, or within the realm of the immediate world around us. We are wrong!
Let me illustrate a story. There was once a famous daredevil named Blondin who regularly thrilled audiences by walking a tightrope stretched across Niagara Falls with a man riding on his shoulders. One day just as he was about to start across, he asked a man in the audience if he believed that he could do it. “Yes,” the man replied you can do it! He then asked him if he were sure that he could do it. ‘Yes, I’m really sure that you can do it!” “Good,” said Blondin, “because my regular man isn't here today and I need you to ride over on my shoulders.” Now the man was faced with the real issue of faith, he had said that he had believed, but was he willing to stake his life on it? You see, faith is not faith until its all you’re holding onto.
Do you remember when you were a little kid and your father or mother was teaching you to swim. The first step was to get you into the water. I can remember going through this with my own kids. I would get in the water and hold out my arms and say “jump!” Although my kids were at first afraid, soon trust in me replaced that fear and they jumped, believing that I would catch them. Let me began it home for you... when your kids(were/are 2-5 years old), when it was time to go in the car, they didn't question your ability to drive the car, the safety precautions.... no they (had/have) child like faith, like the Bible talks about.... they trust YOU!!
I just though of another example of faith....
If I take a chair and ask you if it will hold me up what will you say? I can study this chair and know that it is solid and strong. I can watch other people sit in it and come to the conviction that it is able to hold me up. But it will never hold me up until I do what? Until I sit in it. Even if I am not so sure, but I still take a seat and it is a strong chair, it will hold me up. That's Forsaking All I Take Him!
It is to be like a child who hears her father say, " JUMP!" and she trustingly obeys, throwing herself from a height into HIS waiting arms.....
We live by faith, everyday without even thinking about it. You got up today believing that your clothes would be in your closet, that breakfast would be served, and that there would be a a job there this morning. You did all of this up till this moment without questioning any of it. Yet, someone could have stolen your clothes, the job could have burned down, and you might not have shown up. Thieves, fires, and no-shows happen every day - they just don’t happen to us. You also take risks when you exercise this faith without thinking. For example, you go to doctors whose names you may not even know, receive prescriptions you can’t read, take it to pharmacists you’ve never seen, and take the medicine he gives you without understanding what’s in it. You do all of this without examining the credentials of the doctor, questioning the validity of the prescription or the accuracy of the pharmacist or investigating the effects of the medicine. You could be killing yourself, but you never think about it twice! You simply trust that things are as they should be, and this is the experience of faith. But the kind of faith we use every day is not sufficient when in it comes to the big decisions in life (think about).
There has to be something more "personal" to deepening ones belief, specially when life has a way of driving our faith dangerously close to the edge. What we expect from God so often seems to contradict what we experience in life. We find ourselves wanting to ask: If God is good, then why did this happen? If God is all-powerful, then where is He now? If God loves me, why am I not happier? Richer? Why don’t I have fewer problems and more peace? If God is pleased with me, why don’t I experience more pleasure?
Unanswered questions like these threaten our enthusiasm and heartfelt commitment to our beliefs. We find our faith growing more stoic, our view of God less emotive. We are left to slug it out on our own, believing that the only relevant resources are in this present world.
I believe that man is fraud, and if we place our faith in man, we are bounded to be let down, so this is were we have to dig deep and ask what is the lesson in not getting what we want, are we being protected from a Higher Power, in being supplied with what we need.
We have assumed that this world should be a pleasant and friendly place and that the answers to the troublesome questions of life can be found in the temporal realm. We have assumed that the answers to life’s dilemmas lie somewhere within us, among us, or within the realm of the immediate world around us. We are wrong!
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And saying that…..Faith in this sense is inextricably tied to doubt; it is an attempt, sometimes successful and sometimes not, to squint and struggle to “see through a dark glass.” You see in the Bible,Thomas demanding evidence, he wanted to see, to touch, to prove.
There are times in your spiritual life when there is confusion, and the way out of it is not simply to say that you should not be confused. It is not a matter of right and wrong, but a matter of God taking you through a way that you temporarily do not understand.
“Everyone who asks receives , (Luke 11:10). If all you see is a doubt, how can you see God? Hang on to the fact that He will ultimately give you clear understanding and will fully justify Himself in everything that He has allowed into your life.
“When the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8). Will He find the kind of faith that counts on Him in spite of our confusion? Standing firm in faith, is believing, what Jesus says is true, even though we do not understand what God is doing. He has a bigger picture in mind, than the particular things we are asking of Him right now.
We should battle through our moods, feelings, and emotions into absolute devotion to the Lord Jesus. We must break out of our own little world of experiences, into abandoned devotion to God. Think want the New Testament says Jesus Christ is, and then think of the despicable meagreness of the miserable faith we exhibit.
Our faith must be in the One from whom our salvation springs.Our faith must be built on strong determined confidence in Him. Be encourage!
When you see how big your problems are, simply say to yourself, my God is bigger. My destiny is too great. I have too much to accomplish for my God than to allow disorder to come into my life. I know that God's power is so much greater than the power of fear. And God’s Word says “He did not give me the spirit of fear; but of power,…”
Don't come in agreement with fear. When fear knocks, let faith answer the door. Stay in agreement with God
Amen!! In a strong prayer life, we will learn that faith will get in the ditch with you. Faith will go in the prison with you. Faith will go into any situation you may find yourself. Sometimes we turn to God for help when our foundations are shaking, only to learn that it is God who is shaking them