Your FAITH
Faith is such a beautiful thing. I was thinking back in my life when I put my faith to the test as I trusted other humans. One such time I was participating in a corporate team building day in a camp where you go through a series of obstacles having to depend on your teammates to get you through. There was one obstacle where I had to climb onto a platform and stand on the ledge facing backwards. My teammates had to catch me as I fell backwards into empty space trusting my companions to catch me and not hit the ground. They did! Or another time when I went skydiving with my son and I was attached to my parachute skydiver trusting he would see us safely down and that the parachute would open. Many years ago I was in a military camp, training to be a drill instructor, and had to climb “The ladder to the sky.” The higher you climbed, the ladder rungs were spaced further apart till your body was stretched out. I was afraid of heights and there was no padding on the ground to soften my fall if I slipped and fell. The drill instructor climbed the other side of the ladder and had to talk me through of letting go of the ladder rung to grab hold of the rung above me, hoist my leg over and pull my body over the top ladder rung and climb down. I trusted in the drill instructor to help me down safely.
As I reflect back on my life, there were so many more examples in my life of placing my faith, my trust in others to see me through situations where I had no control over the outcome.
God expects us to release our faith in Him when we are faced with uncertainty.
The first part in releasing your faith is to ask God for His protection and then commit yourself to the task in hand. It will be scary, difficult and the outcome uncertain. But once you have committed there’s no going back. God will never work until we commit. Faith is receiving the gifts God endowed us, having a spirit of abiding, by exercising those gifts such as putting on the Armor of God.
God asked Abraham to step out in faith to leave his home and travel to an unknown country. Out of faith, Abraham did. Because of Abraham’s faith, God credited him to be a righteous man.
The second part is to trust in God. He will be with you as you go through the fire. He has a plan for your life that will be so much better than you can imagine for yourself. As you go through trial it’s hard to make sense of it until you look back and see God’s wisdom in growing you, maturing you, bringing you into a deeper and closer relationship with Him.
Genuine faith puts its letter into the mailbox and lets go, trusting the post office that it will arrive at its destination. Distrust holds on to the envelope and it never reaches its destination. The letters the sender holds onto never reaches its recipient does not do any good for anyone until the sender lets go of the letter trusting them to the postal service.
The third step is to watch God work! He will do this to bring you to a higher level as you witness the completion of your trial changing you into a new creature bringing perseverance, a depth of character, and hope in the God Almighty.
How do you know if you released your faith in God over a situation that the outcome is uncertain?
By handing your circumstance over to God, allowing Him to work. Once we prayed to God and committed our trial to Him, you should not continue to be anxious. “Cast all your anxiety on Him,” (1 Peter 5:7), and another of God’s commands, “Do not be anxious about anything,” (Philippians 4:6). If we cast our burden on God, why do we take them back continually allowing our troubles to pressure us? If we carry our burdens from the throne of grace, it is obvious we have not left it at the throne of grace.
After committing something to God if you can come away with no more sadness, pain or anxiety in your heart, that is proof of the prayer of faith. But if you pray and then still carry your burden, then consider that your faith was not exercised.
When you petition the Lord in your troubles, let your follow up prayers be of thanksgiving to Him entrusting God to do a good work.
And you will experience the peace of God that is beyond understanding.
Faith is confidence …assurance about of what we do not see. Hebrews 11:1
Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him and He will do this.
Psalm 37:5