Who or What is Your Faith In?
I remember growing up and attending church at the First Presbyterian here in my local town. I attended Sunday school, was in the church choir and then as I entered junior high/high school I was no longer a part of church. Back then it just wasn’t cool to go to church and I wanted to do other things and be with my friends. I always believed there was a God, but never knew much more than that. Believing was easy because didn’t everyone believe in God? So I thought. I knew nothing else and never had a desire or itch to want to learn more about who this God was and what He was all about.
I continued to live my life like I always did and living the best way I knew how, the only way I knew how. My mom was a single mom raising my sister and I and she never really let us see how difficult things were at times. I know that wasn’t easy for her and I’ve always admired and respected how we never went without. I have a special place in my heart for single moms. There was always a roof over our heads, food on the table, clothes on our back, decorations at holidays, family holidays, Summer activities through Parks and Recreation. I did a lot of fun things growing up, had a lot of friends and knew how to have fun and again, always believed there was a God or in God…was there a difference?
It wasn’t until I was 49 when I learned that there really IS a God and I could have a relationship with Him. Relationship, Faith, Belief . . . what? As my walk started I told myself I have faith in Him, and I don’t doubt for a minute that I didn’t. You know how you hear something, you think you know it, you hear it again, and again, and again, AND then one day something clicks and it clicks BIG. Well today as I write this it clicked BIG!!
I’ve had faith, but I didn’t really understand or get just how BIG God is and how He is bigger than anything, everyone and yes even me. I continued to tell myself that I’m on this adventure that God has put me on, but at the same time I’ve found myself succumbing to the fear and doubt when it comes to listening for God and obedience. So, it’s not that my faith has been small or there was none, it’s what I’ve been willing to do in obedience to God. This is where I’ve been picking and choosing and choosing those things that are easier for me and not realizing and using my faith in Him and who He is. This will not get me to reach my full victory. I may experience small victories here and there, which are all great, but picking and choosing will not take me to reach my full potential. Picking and choosing will only keep me at mediocre. And, mediocre is not part of God’s plan or in His vocabulary. You see, faith without works is dead.
“Thus only faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”
James 2:17
So where does your faith lie? Do you have faith, do you not, do you think you’re not able, or are you not quite sure what it is? All of these are legitimate questions and there’s an answer for all of them.
So here’s a question for you: When you see a chair, do you have faith that if you sit in it that it will hold you up? When you want to use the blow dryer, do you have faith that the electricity will turn it on? When you put your finger print or password in your phone, do you have faith your apps will all appear? These are all things that we seem to put our faith in. Things that we believe will work without knowing exactly how they do. But, we always seem to question putting our faith into God and who He is and His promises for us. Seems a little backwards don’t you think? I mean, faith is believing in something that we can’t see, touch or feel. See, the chair looks like it will hold me up but are the legs strong enough, will the blow dryer work when I plug it in? I don’t understand how electricity works, but I have faith it will. And they tell me that if I put my password on my phone it will open up and allow me to make phone calls and take photos, but I don’t know how or why that works. I just have faith that it does.
Do you have faith and what or who do you put your faith in? This is the BIG question of the day.
When we go through tough seasons, situations, decisions, we tend to put our faith in ourselves in the hopes that WE can pull ourselves out or we put our faith in something or someone else. But, from my experience putting my faith in God has far outweighed the alternative. This again is a choice. Free will is an amazing gift that we’ve all been given. I just choose to use my free will to put my faith in Him because when I put it in myself, I come up short.
