But the description of faith in Hebrews 11: 1-2 makes me meditate on the difference between belief and faith. “Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen.”
Faith implies an element of doubt, just as love does. You cannot always possess it peacefully. Like love, faith must be fostered by communication, i.e., prayer! It seems my faith (trust in God) requires constant replenishing. I worry, will I have enough when I face Jesus at the end of my earthly life? Yet never have I ever heard God say, ‘I’m only going to give you this much faith, so you’d better hoard it.’ It seems the supply of faith available to us is inexhaustible. So why do I have the fear? Faith is definitely a choice. It is both incredibly powerful, but also fragile. Worry tends often to squeeze the faith and hope out of my life. Worry can rob us of our faith. When we worry, we lose our joy and it affects our ability to serve God. When we simply trust God and put God first in our lives, then we glorify Him, and our joy can return.
An image that keeps running through my mind as I write this is one of my granddaughter Lily when she was learning to walk. I’m sure every parent and grandparent has done the same thing. Mom or Dad will sit on the floor and “aim” the kid toward the other parent. The kid stumbles across the floor and launches herself into her mom or dad’s arms. If they were not there to catch her, she would definitely land face first on the floor. And yet she plays the “game” again and again and every time she will look back at the “launching” parent and grin with such pride and joy at her accomplishment. There isn’t any thought in her head about, “what if they didn’t catch me?” She simply trusts completely.
How I wish I had that kind of faith and trust. It is so easy to fall into the worry trap and lose our joy.
My prayer today is for those of us who stumble with our faith and trust. Instead of expecting the worst, we should be preparing for the best.
No comments:
Post a Comment