Faith For Me
The Lord continues to bring me to faith. When I look back at the last year or two, He seemed to start with a theme of “abiding”, remaining, enduring, dwelling and waiting. Webster even includes “tolerate” in the definition for abide. It’s not enough to just “believe”, you have to “keep believing”. You have to keep your faith. You have to learn to live out your faith. You have to have faith for yourself.
“If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given to you.” John 15:7 [+/-]
And in “The Message”, the verse reads, “But if you make yourselves at home with me and my words are at home with you, you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon.”
Just when you think you have “faith” figured out, life seems to throw you another curve ball. You pray and wait for something to start. All the time praying and waiting for something else to stop. And your faith is challenged.
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” James 1:2-4 [+/-]
There are so many revelations that God has given me about faith recently, but the one that may hit the deepest, is the most personal and is the most relevant to all of them is that I must have faith for myself.
To be honest, it has not been hard for me to have faith for other people, even in the midst of their very real struggles. I am a person that naturally sees the potential in people, the possibilities in circumstances and ultimately the hope and promise of God in all of it. Like you, I have had very close friends that have had very serious marital issues, that have had kids with cancer, have had cancer themselves, have lived through the divorce of parents, have had an unfaithful spouse, have had an affair themselves, have lived through unspeakable and unbearable tragedies. And with them all, I can sit, cry, yell and pray and know that God is and will see them through. That He only has their very best interests at heart.
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28 [+/-]
But I don’t always have the same kind of faith for myself. And maybe that is not uncommon. Maybe it’s easier, like some kind of faith-in-training program, to see the possibilities of God when you have some distance, some emotional objectivity, and you simply aren’t enduring the hardship.
God is moving me towards a very precious and tender place of having faith, increasing faith, meaningful and personal faith for myself. I am not even talking about faith for my husband, my children, our families or our friends. I am talking about faith just for me.
“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Hebrews 11:1 [+/-]
Because at the end of the day, the only one I am truly with is myself. When push comes to shove, the only faith that matters is my own. When I get the opportunity to comfort someone else in their time of need, it is only my faith that I will show.
For all of us, we have an incredible gift from our Heavenly Father available for us to receive. He gives us a way to believe in all that is unseen, all that is unknown, all that is being worked out on our behalf.
As we approach the New Year, my prayer for each of us is claiming and standing on the complete and everlasting promises of Faith.
Have faith for yourself. Be blessed.
