For the past two months I have been blessed with the opportunity to visit several churches. During this time God has definitely reveled a lot of thought provoking truths. I've been to large churches, small churches, and yes, even mid size churches. These visits have been awesome and I strongly encourage many of you to do the same when the opportunity presents itself. One of my favorite visits was a local multicultural church that challenged me to think in different ways. It is amazing to me that we can look forward to that day when we all spend eternity with our father in heaven, but struggle to spend a few hours a week together in our churches, but that is a different blog for a different day. My topic today examines our faith. I was challenged a few weeks ago with the thought, "How much do I REALLY believe?"
When I read the gospels, the books of the bible that deal with Jesus and what he did while he was on Earth, I am amazed and alarmed by the disciples actions at times. Here they are walking and talking to the son of God! Jesus himself is right there among them, in the flesh! He not only claims this, but He proves it several times. Can you imagine being told to take a sack lunch with a few fish and bread scraps and feed thousands? I would probably start cutting the fish into tiny little pieces (infinitesimal pieces - sorry, a word I loved since my calculus days). But to see this happen, to reach into a bag, or basket, or whatever, and see food keep coming, when you know you didn't start out with that much, should be a clue that Jesus is the real deal. But the disciples quickly forget this miracle. After everyone was fed and went home, the disciples let Jesus stay on the mountain for some quiet time while they waited for him in a boat some distance from the shore. The wind picks up so they can't get to shore to pick Jesus up. Jesus being who he is says "no problem" and just walks to them. Right on top of the water! Now you would think after the feeding and other miracles they have witnessed, this would be no big deal. I would imagine they would all chuckle and be like "oh that Jesus, doing that I'm the divine son of God thing again!" But no, they shriek in terror! Only Peter is bold enough to say "I can do this" and walks out to Jesus. But then like many of us who go strong until trouble comes, Peter begins to sink when the wind and storms pick up. You see we suddenly forget God's promises, and we lose faith. This is where I think many of us are at in our Christian walk.
When we face hard times, trials, and difficulties we often cry out to God for help. Many of us are desperate and panicked, worried, and even stressed when we decide to call on Him. But what does that say about our faith? Why cant we just proclaim victory in whatever way God wants to do it? When we are faced with a challenge we need to stand firm and say "God, right now I proclaim this victory in your name, and will wait for you to do your will!" The secret to this is actually believing in the proclamation you're stating. Simply praying while worrying will not work. Now I have common sense and understand many times we have anxiety about issues, we are human and in the flesh. But again, the Christian life is a journey! It is a lifelong trip to a destination, so to get there you have to continue to work towards your goal. Being spiritually formed is how this happens. Jesus says that when you read his word and put it into practice it will be like building a house on a solid foundation, when we do not it will be like building a house on sand. Maybe this is why Christians lack faith and the ability to proclaim God's promises, we don't know them! Then there are some who know God's word but forgets that we have the Holy Spirit, and with that power we can proclaim victories! Let's not fall into the trap that we are powerless, for we have God on our side, and with him everything is possible.
Here is some of the promises God has for us: http://www.geocities.com/perkinshome/promise.html (I do not sponsor or have any relation to this site)
Now like always I have to say we must use common sense. We have to do our part and not expect God to do things for us we have control over and can do ourselves. We can have faith that God will provide for us but we also received gifts form God that allow us to work so we can do our part in what God provides.
My attention to this subject occurred when I was attending the multicultural church I mentioned earlier. On one Sunday morning the pastor shared a quick story about his Blackberry (its a cell phone for those who don't know). He told us how it was in his pocket when he fell into the lake he was walking in. Well he knew that conventional wisdom states, water + cell phone = dead. He set the phone in his car to dry. Hours later he turned on the phone and it did not work. He repeated the same process and decided to try it again, same result. At this point he began to proclaim that God wanted him to be a better steward of his finances, and spending $300 on a replacement phone was just wasteful. This pastor simply would not believe or accept that his phone was dead. His process of setting it to dry on his car dashboard, turn on, fail, and repeat lasted five or seven times (I can't remember the exact number). After the last time he did this, the phone worked perfectly. Now like most, my first reaction was dismissal. The phone just dried out and sometimes you get lucky, God isn't concerned about your material things like a cell phone, God really didn't do ......whoa! Where did this doubt come from? Why did I think this was ridiculous? I am curious to see what others think. Whatever I thought, I realized that this pastor has a solid foundation, so solid that he even proclaims his faith in the Spirit's power in the most common everyday circumstances. I want that faith!
The last thing I wanted to mention refers back to Peter, who was the only disciple to take that walk of faith. He began to sink because he couldn't handle the storm coming his way, but he cried out to Jesus in his weakness, and Jesus grabbed his hand, and pulled him to safety. Always remember that we already have the victory, lets own it and proclaim it, which requires us to believe it. To do this we must be spiritually transformed, our lives built on a solid foundation of Christ, but if we stumble and lack faith, just cry out to Jesus, and he will reach out to you, and pull you to safety.
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