What is faith?
Hebrews 11:1 says "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."
Recently, our pastor has been giving sermons about faith. It has been a whole different approach really to the way that I was taught previously. It was always, "Well, you can't change some things, but oh well. Just accept it. Have faith." Like somehow that makes it all better. Faith should be powerful, but lately, looking at it from the above approach, it has made me feel weak.
I was not expecting to have another child. I'm not prepared for this, and neither is my wallet! Everyone kept telling me, "Have faith. God will provide." That didn't make things any better. So I just sit here and wait for God to provide? What do I do until then? I do everything I can to change things. Then people tell me there's some things you can't change so just leave them to God. I never really understood what that meant.
Then my pastor said something profound. Declare it to God. Have faith that it will be, and it will be. Don't make your prayers be a begging session. Tell God that you know that he can provide for you. Do what you can to change things, of course, but also pray to God with confidence, with faith, with boldness. It will happen!
This changed my total perspective on things. After all, doesn't the Bible say that we can move mountains?
Mark 11:23 says "Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them."
If we have faith in what God will do for us and we declare it with faith, it will happen. Since I've had this perspective this past week, my outlook has been so much sunnier. I've had some bad things happen to me this past week at my job, but it's just slid off my shoulders because I have faith that God knows where I am supposed to be. I am working my way towards achieving His calling for me, and I have faith that it will turn out right.
i respect those who are willing to profess their faith. i've seen my fair share of reasons to believe. and although i don't shout it from the rooftops, i am strong in knowing he walks with me.
ReplyDeleteI love this post. I know that people tell you that things will work out but you should truly believe that.
ReplyDeleteMy husband was in a dead end job and health care was outrageous. Little did I know at the time that I would get laid off due to medical conditions and would end up losing my group health insurance for my family. A new job that had better benefits and it was with a company that my husband is passionate about. This job landed in his lap out of the blue. My husband wasn't even looking for another job and someone from his previous job sent him a message about a new job. Needless to say after a phone interview, they hired him on the spot (they didn't meet him until he showed up out of town for his first week). The health benefits lined up so that my family only had a 5 day gap in group health insurance.
I wanted to share this story as a inspiration because God had everything to do with the perfect timing of how things ended up working out.
I really like the sentiment, "Don't make your prayers be a begging session." Sometimes it starts to feel like that doesn't it? I like the idea of doing all you can and then "declaring it to God." Thanks.
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