Faith seems hard to come by at times. I think about how difficult it is for me to trust and leave things up to God but when I read the stories in the Bible it looks unreasonable to not have faith.
The saints of old, their stories, unfold in the pages of Scripture telling of great faith resulting in amazing acts of faith, giving hope for future generations. But what made their faith so strong? How did they get such robust faith and without all the printed stories that we have to look back on. Imagine if our faith came only from the stories, verbally past on from the generations before us- what would our faith look like? What if the family we were raised in didn't have faith- then what would our own faith look like?
How did a guy like OT Joseph have such amazing faith- faith to rest in God's plan for him through all the adversity and trials he had to go through? Joseph was the favored son of a father who loved him so very much- he was a daddy's boy, born to Israel in his old age. Think about the pain that went through that family while all this was taking place. The guilt that must have been going through the older brothers' hearts as they told their father the lies to cover up their sin.
What was Joseph thinking as he was being put into the pit- what was he thinking as he was being brought back up? What must have been going through his mind as his own brothers were selling him to people he had never seen before and probably couldn't even understand what they were saying? How did he remain strong, trusting in God's plan, while all this was taking place? The stories he had heard the first 17 years of his life must have had a big impact on him. Did his father tell him all these stories and he just had no issues believing that this is how God works?
What will my kids' faith look like as they listen and watch me live a life of faith in front of them? They have the Bible now, but what if they didn't? The Holy Spirit works in our hearts to grow our faith after He implants it there in the first place, but the seeds of faith get planted along the way, in our own hearts and in the hearts of those around us, growing up to be big trees to continue the planting analogy, that we can look back and be reminded of what God did in our lives and in the lives of others.
I think that I can do a better job of proclaiming to the world what God is doing to build my faith. We can't keep hidden, or suppressed, the work He is doing to show His power in our lives and in the lives of those around us. It's not boasting to tell what God is doing in our lives because it is showing His greatness off in our weakness. "'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."
We need not try to cover up our weaknesses because in those weaknesses His power is shown. How strong does someone have to be to accomplish something amazing while carrying the weight of another who is not contributing? We can proclaim to the world, and our own hearts, God's faithfulness- we must. This just enhances the work the Holy Spirit is doing in our own hearts. We need to tell others and ourselves, "look how amazing our God is- He did..."
We need to hide His promises in our hearts, have the stories of saints gone home in our hearts, have biographies of faithful ones and our own past graces ready for when the trials and testing comes, so we can look back on all that our Great God has done and say to our own hearts, "Great is your faithfulness".
SCC has a new album out. He wrote this in connection with the lose of his adopted daughter. This happened the same day as Grant's event, but we were allowed, by God, to keep Grant. I can partially relate to SCC as I think about the lose and think about "You give and take away" and how we must often declare it to our hearts- we must remind ourselves that God is faithful. Life is hard but God IS faithful. Joseph was convinced, Job was convinced, David was convinced, Jesus was convinced, Paul was convinced and we must be convinced.
Faithful,
Steven Curtis Chapman
I am broken, I am bleeding
I'm scared and I'm confused
But You are faithful, yes, You are faithful
I am weary and believing
God please help my unbelief
Cause You are faithful, yes, You are faithful
I will proclaim it to the world
I will declare it to my heart
I will sing it when the sun is shining
I will scream it in the dark
You are faithful, You are faithful
When You give and when You take away
Even then still Your name is faithful
You are faithful
And with everything inside of me
I am choosing to believe
You are faithful
I am waiting for the rescue
That I know will surely come
Cause You are faithful, yes, You are faithful
And I've dropped anchor in Your promises and I am holding on
Cause You are faithful, God, You are faithful
I will proclaim it to the world
I will declare it to my heart
I'll sing it when the sun is shining
I will scream it in the dark
You are faithful, You are faithful
When You give and when You take away
Even then still Your name is faithful
You are faithful
And with everything inside of me
I am choosing to believe
You're faithful
So faithful
When I cannot have the answer
That I'm wanting to demand
I'll remember You are God
And everything is in Your hands
With Your hands You put the sun and moon and stars up in the sky
For the sake of love You hung Your own son on the cross to die
And You are faithful
Yes, You are faithful
When You give, when You take away even then
Great is Your faithfulness
Great is Your faithfulness
And with everything inside of me
I am choosing to believe
You're faithful
When You give, when You take away
Even then, still Your name is faithful
You are faithful
And with everything inside of me
I am choosing to believe
You are faithful
You are faithful
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