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 a 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.
No comments:
Post a Comment