what is faith? the bible says faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see(hebrews11:1). pretty good definition i'd say. funny thing about that faith thing.
people have faith in everything. a person close to me told me one day when we were talking that faith is an aspect of life everyday. we HAVE to have faith. people will tie a religious tag to faith a lot of times but in the way she put it, you have faith in your legs to hold you up when you walk. you have faith in that chair to hold you up. things like that. we all live a life of faith each day so to say you have no faith at all is an ignorant statement. you can say that you dont have to have faith in your legs holding you up, its a proven, tested fact. well as far as i know its also a proven tested fact that legs break. you don't take every step of every day scared your leg is going to snap in half, you have faith its going to hold you up. that faith has become so intwined with your life that its just a part of you now and when i speak of you having faith in your legs you think im crazy. well what about faith in Christ? this is my main point for this blog. we all live a life of faith in everything. faith is kind of like glue. it holds things together. you have faith the people that made your hamburger at wendy's cooked the meat well enough. you have faith that the farmer who raised the cattle for that hamburger didnt infect his herd with anything. you have faith in everything, now what about Christ?
the funny thing about faith in Christ is that it's only tested in storms. anybody can have faith that they wont drown standing on the shore but what about when you are out in the waves?
you can talk a talk all day of how you would trust Jesus with it all when everything went wrong, and its awesome that you would say that, but the more awesome side of the story is side B as they used to say on the cassettes, what about when your world is flipped. what about when things change. what about when you dont know your left from right so to say. when you dont know whether to run or just curl up in a ball and wait for it to all blow over. where is your faith then? lately its like Satan was throwin darts at a wall of pictures to decide who he was gonna mess with and, lucky me, all the darts he threw hit me. so here i am, loving life, everything is easy breezy, and then its like all of a sudden i got bombarded. it was a bitter sweet rain seeing as how i found some high points in the storm but they were only clouded out by the dark clouds. great things happened but some things dissapointed. amazing things will come of it but its hard to see the end of this storm right now. (i ramble because writing is one way i face the devil face to face with what hes doing and remind him whats really up) an awesome fact that Jesus said....in this world, youre gonna have troubles. youre gonna face some tough times. youre gonna face some heartache. youre gonna face some seemingly insurmountable obstacles BUT dont even sweat those things bro, I've already whooped it all and am over it. find your victory in Me....... thats paraphrased but its what i get out of it.
back on the faith topic, like i was saying its easy to say you wont drown when youre standing on the shore but when you get out there in the waves is the true test of your faith. will you give up and be overcome by the waves and the storm? will you try as hard as you can to subdue the waves and blow the storm away by yourself? or will you look up and call on God's promises and trust in Him?
it is by no means easy, at least for me, to do that in every area. i feel like there is something i have to do. like God needs some help. like God relies on me to help Him. ive heard people say before that God will do only what we can't do for ourselves. this may have some truth to it but i know that when Lot and his family were told by two angels to leave Sodom and the time came to leave, Lot hesitated and the angels grabbed Lot, his wife, and his two daughters and took them outta the city (Gen. 19:15-16). i'm not backing lazy christians and im not advocating people that do nothing. its like the man in the flood praying for God to save him and he let three boats go by with the response ' i dont need the boat, God's gonna save me.' then he died and when he ot to heaven God told him He sent him three boats. thats ignorant. God sent boats and He passed them up. its hard to explain so if you question what im saying, get in touch with me personally and ill try to explain it verbally.
you see, im tryin to put my mind into the mindset i believe God wants us to have. like a child. fully dependent on Him. like i said before in my other writin, God does NOT need our help, He WANTS it. there is a humoungous difference. to need it would mean that He couldn't do anything without our help. that would put us on an equal level with God because we would have to work together to achieve whatever either one of us wanted. the fact is we aint = to God. i know this might upset some people's religious thoughts of we work together with God blah blah blah. yea, we do, but not out of His necessity, just our desire to please Him and His willingness to let us work with Him. it's like when a dad lets his son wash the car with him. its not because the dad can't wash the car on his own, he allows the son to help him because they have that intimate relationship and that working together grows them closer. our work is brought forth because of our love (1thess1:3) this verse looks like its talking about us working for each other on earth coming from love but is it not true also of us with God? works dont save us so why work? because we love Him. thats a completely different time to write though. i believe my God is in control of everything. when bad comes to me, He's allowed it to be brought. when i'm tested, He is handling it. people say, ''God won't test you. He's only good. He's absolutely good.'' i believe thats why He does it. God knows where our faith stands. He knows how strong we are. a test does two things for us, it really does nothing for God i dont think.
1. it shows us our faith.
-we may talk a big game then when we're tested and come up short we realize our faith doesnt match our mouth.
2. it gives us a chance to increase our faith.
-you can't get stronger on the bench press by talking about lifting the weight or just staring at it. you have to get under the weights.
(sorry if it sounds like athletic analogies, i gotta heart for that stuff. thats why thats where my ministry is. thanks God.)
but the point im trying to make is, when youre on the shore, claim it. claim all day long that your faith will stand in times of struggle. then when youre in times of struggle give it to God. that seems suuuper dooper easy doesnt it. but youd be surprised at how reversed it is.
sometimes its harder to let go than it is to hang on.
the thing about hanging on is its like we tell God "hands off". like were telling Him we've got this under control. we can handle it.
i firmly believe that's the biggest struggle. letting go and letting God as somebody said one time.
its a huge struggle for me a lot of times because it's not physical. its spiritual warfare. my mind set is that if anything is physical, i can and will win at it. it's tangible.
thats why this battle has a whole new set of weapons. a whole new way to fight. you cant fight with jabs and hooks. no more brute strength and grit. its all on God.
10 A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. 12 For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.
13 Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm. 14 Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God’s righteousness. 15 For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared. 16 In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil. 17 Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (ephesians6:10-17)
thats the NLT translation of our spiritual warfare. its not against flesh and blood so flesh and blood weapons do no good. its against satan and his army. notice how the armor is God's. our strength and power needs to be from the LORD. it's God's righteousness. our peace is the Gospel. our very sword, the only thing listed that is a weapon, the only thing that is an attack, is God's very word. its not our rightesouness, our strength, our ok news, or our weapons. God's stuff is the stuff of champions.
i made faith bold in that because thats whats on my mind today and has been for a while. lately ive broken down in tears and just balling with spiritual warfare. i came to the point of where i was tired of persevering just so i could persevere again and again and again. it was like and is like im persevering just to persevere something else but...after perseverance comes fulfillment of the promise. (hebrews10:36)
if youre going through something, know youre not alone. we all struggle and all are called to help each other out. if you see the waves coming, dont look at them, just look up.
God is love.
im through. thanks for reading.
one love. one God.
-andrew
p.s. cat feed.(thas for you steve)
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