The Power of Faith

Have you ever had one of those days where you feel like, really feel like God is with you all day long? Of course we know that God is omnipresent - always present everywhere. That He is always with us, never leaves us and never forsakes us. There are probably hundreds of scripture verses in which God makes sure we know this truth about His steadfastness.

Recently I had one of those days where God just kept showing up. His message was, "I am omnipotent. I am omniscient. I am omnipresent. I am sovereign." In other words, He was making sure I knew that He can see everything, everywhere, all the time. And He has all the power to do anything He wants to do about any and all of it. So, my response to this was, "Well then, why should I not trust You completely with everything that I am and everything that I have?" A no brainer, right?!

Then why do we struggle so hard with life? Why do we ask God, "Why?" Why do we live without peace and joy and love? I believe it is because we lack faith. We are told to believe in things not seen. God. His power. His ways that are higher than our ways. This is hard. It takes diligence, dedication, wisdom, and great perseverance to produce powerful faith that remains unshaken when the world shakes us on a regular basis.

Baby steps. It helps me to approach it in small pieces. Things that I can handle on a daily basis. I had to learn the biggest truth and testament to building a strong faith. It's all about relationship and not religion. Starting my day with prayer. Here's my trick. (I'm not a very good morning person). I set my alarm about 10 minutes too early. When that first alarm goes off, I hit snooze. In between the obtrusive sounds, I pray. I welcome God into my day and ask Him to guide me through it. That sets the tone before my feet hit the floor. God is with me no matter what... but, here, I have plugged my brain, my thoughts into this reality.

Second baby step. I no longer miss a day without a focused prayer - praising God for who He is, confessing my sins, failures, and short comings, thanking Him for the blessings and trials in my life, and finally lifting my requests to Him. I have to admit, sometimes these prayers are on the road... on those days I call it "windshield time" with God. Other times are a legitimate "quiet time". Oh, also, and this is pretty HUGE for this lady who loves her bed, I get up an hour earlier on Sunday morning so I can get with God alone before we start the "get ready for church scramble". This has blessed me to a level I cannot explain!

Third baby step. Along with that more complete prayer, I never miss a day without reading from His true and holy Word in the Bible. Here again, at times there are short cuts that are necessary due to over packed schedules and a house full of kids. Sometimes I'll read just a verse or two. Other times when I have the luxury of an unhurried morning I soak it in for hours. Who wants a one-way conversation? Not me. God doesn't either. He speaks to us through His living Word. Meet Him in the pages of His Word every day - you will not regret it. Oh, and pray for His help in understanding what He has for you there.

Through these lifestyle changes God has taught me where He should have been all my life. First. I have known this all my life, but neglected to apply it until my life was so out of control I had no where else to turn. See... God uses these hard times to bring us back to Himself... for a good reason. A really good reason - for our protection and our provision. Isn't that the roll of a loving Father? Protect and provide? Yeah. He loves us so much with a love that is completely out of our understanding. When we love Him first, He fills us so full with His unending love that it just spills out and onto those around us. So generous. We give a little, He gives a lot. That's my God.

In that faith building I have come to an understanding that I don't deserve any of it. There is no sense of entitlement when it comes to God and His blessings. We can't earn a bit of it. It's not for sale or bargain. God generously gives gifts - temporal and eternal. Salvation is a gift. Jesus died, DIED so we can live a life beyond the grave some day in heaven. Everyone is going to die and everyone is going to live somewhere eternally. There's only two choices... as the kids say, "up or down".

So, if we can't earn it, buy it, or bargain for it by "being a good person" - how do we receive these blessings? By accepting the free gift of salvation through faith in Jesus as our Savior and Lord. As we build our faith in Him, as we build our relationship with Him (try my baby steps listed above), we fall in love with Him and we want to serve Him. It's expected of us as His followers... to do His will, to do His good work. Share your faith, teach Sunday school, lead a Bible study, share your time with a neighbor, make a meal for someone in need, babysit for a frazzled mom... the list goes on and on. We don't do it for pats on the back or to prove what a good person we are or to get something in return. Our duty is to serve the Lord, to fear Him and put Him first in our lives. We do it out of love for the Father who loved us first. It's that overflow that I talked about above. Love God by putting Him first and He'll show you a life that you've never known.

The verse of thanks that I've been studying for way too long is Luke 17:9. It brings this sense of duty to our heavenly Master into a story picture. Jesus is teaching His disciples and they said to Him, "Increase our faith!" (Luke 17:5) Jesus replies with a parable of a master and his servant. Basically, when a master has a servant come in from his work, the master doesn't invite him to sit down and dine with him. No. The master tells the servant to go get his dinner, change his clothes and wait on him. Then comes our verse:

"He does not thank the slave because he did the things which were commanded, does he?" Luke 17:9

It goes on to say, "So you too, when you do all the things which are commanded you, say, 'We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done." (v. 10) I think what Jesus is telling us here is that He's not just going to magically increase our faith. We have to come to that by doing what we are told and our faith will be increased... let's say in "baby steps." Or sometimes we have those mountain top experiences, or those "God with you all day long" days, or even those deep dark pit times when we finally see the light. When we get to our place of humble service before the Lord and realize that He is smiling on us with His smile of indescribable love - our faith will increase and that is one of those great gifts from our Father God.

"We love because He first loved us." 1 John 4:19

This video on YouTube speaks this truth of God's love to me as well (copy & paste - don't know why the links aren't working): Steven Curtis Chapman's "Love Take Me Over" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8DiZhNVu1I

I found this helpful to explain our reason, drive or duty in light of our own prayer for increased faith:

From The Amazing Collection study of Proverbs:

Until we are humbled at His awesomeness, made speechless at His holiness, and become awestruck at His majesty; until we quake at His wrath against sin and tremble at His incredible power; until we are overcome by His unending mercy and captured by His unsearchable love - in short, until we arrive at that place where we grasp that He is God and we are not, or at least are on the way - we pursue wisdom in vain. Because the beginning of wisdom is "the fear of the Lord."

Today we give thanks for the opportunity to serve out of the overflow of love that God provides abundantly without cost to us... great cost to Him... His son on the cross. Praise Him and thank Him for the opportunity to serve His people in the name of His Son Jesus! Praise and thank Him for His desire to know you deeply and personally - the desire is there - receive it by practicing "baby steps" into the power of faith in Christ! Friend, He loves you - love Him back.

"And be thankful." Colossians 3:15b