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Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for
and assurance about what we do not see.
After Jesus had performed the miracle of feeding the crowd
of 5000 people, with 5 loaves and 2 fish, he told the disciples to get in a
boat ahead of him. He let them know that he would meet them on the other side.
Before dawn the next day, after Jesus had taken time to be by himself to pray,
he walked on the water to meet them on the boat. The disciples were terrified
at first because they did not recognize that it was Jesus. However, Jesus
calmed their fears once he let them know that it was he.
Peter asked that Lord to allow him to walk on the water
towards him, so Jesus told him to come. Peter began to walk on the water, but
when he took notice of the wind, he began to sink. He cried out to Jesus for
help. Jesus immediately reached out his hand and rescued Peter from drowning.
Jesus’ response to Peter’s fear was, “Oh ye of little faith. Why did you doubt?”
Faith is one of the hardest things to have at times. We are
used to being secure in what we see, but the unknown makes us fearful. Yes, it
sounds good when telling it to someone else, but what happens when we find
ourselves against a wall that doesn’t seem to have no way out? How do we have
faith when it seems that we’ve come against one trial, after another, after
another.
The problem with many who struggle with faith is not the
ability of God to work the situation out, but WILL He work the situation out. It’s
as if you wonder if this will be the ONE time that God doesn’t come through.
You know He’s able. You’ve read the scriptures, heard the sermons, and sang the
songs. However, there’s still a seed of doubt in your mind as to if this will
be the time that God lets you down. As you ponder on the thoughts, your faith
begins to become less and less, and the seed of doubt begin to grow roots and
bud sprouts.
Your mind begins to struggle with itself as you think back
to the times when God did bring you out of a situation, but this time seems to
be different. This time, the trial seems to be rougher, tougher, and harder to
deal with. Your mind is waging war where one moment you have faith and believe
that God will do it and the next minute you doubt because you are not seeing
anything transpire. You’ve prayed, fasted, and prayed some more only to receive
what seems to be silence from God.
You begin to question decisions you once made, at the time,
thinking they from God. You question your prayers because they don’t seem to be
working. You ask yourself if you somehow missed God, while trying to pursue Him.
You start going over your circumstances to see if you’re being punished for
some wrong. You question your stance with God because you don’t feel His
presence. You begin to self-search and see is there something wrong with YOU.
Faith is a funny thing because its outcome is totally out
of your control. That situation that you are in is only capable of working
itself out by God alone. God will allow you to be put in a place where you can
only rely on Him. You faith is truly being tested because there is absolutely
NOTHING that you can do. You can’t go to family because half the time, they are
reliant upon you. You can’t go to friends because their doubt will only
increase yours. You find yourself alone in a situation with which there is no
one else you can call on. Therefore, even though you have very little faith, with
what you do have, you use it to call upon God.
God doesn’t always come in the timing that we want or the
way that we prefer. God has this funny thing when it comes to time. It is
because He is not on a clock as we are. We live our lives with the who, when
and where aspects. However, because God does not work that way, so faith is all
we have to go by. God sees from the beginning to the end. He already knows how
a situation is going to turn out before the thought ever enters our mind.
Despite the unknown, we must stay faithful in trusting Him. We must not allow
the seeds of doubt to fester and take root in our minds. James 1:6-8 says, “But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the
one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That
person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is
double-minded and unstable in all they do.” (NIV)
See, Peter only began to sink when he took his
eyes off of Jesus. He allowed the
winds of life to distract him. So instead of him being focused on the one who
was in control of the winds, he focused on the wind itself. We do the same
thing that Peter did. We focus on the trial or the situation instead of the
Master. We allow the winds of life to knock us down and therefore, begin to
lose faith and sink instead of relying on the wind Maker.
Therefore, we lose all hope and
want to give up.
Even when things do not look to be going in our
favor, we must trust and believe that God will work it out. Despite how close
the time is coming for a decision, we must know that God is still in control.
Regardless of how difficult the circumstances seem to be, we must have faith
that God can and will make a way. Jeremiah 32:27 says, “I am the Lord, the God of all mankind. Is
there anything too hard for me?”(NIV) Trust
and always believe in God that even when He is silent, He is working all things
out for your good. God bless!
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