On Faith
I want you to think back to the last time you exercised faith. No, it does not have to be spiritually, but it can be as simple as sitting at a restaurant. Don’t believe me? Let me paint you a picture.
It’s 4:15 in the afternoon and you are beat from a long, mundane day at school. Your stomach starts to rumble, and you think “Man, I got the munchies, I need to get me some food.” At your convenience, there is a Whataburger sent from God himself directly across the street from your school. You dash across the street, dodge a few cars, jump over a hedge or three, and walk through the aluminum door frame to your deliverance. You order the meal of champions; chicken tenders, fries and a big ol’ Texas sized Powerade. You sit down at a random table, and to your demise, all of your peers from school come strutting into YOUR restaurant and start ordering massive meals. A bead of sweat trickles down your forehead as one order after the other is placed. The sound of sizzling patties and frying machines begin to echo from the kitchen at a exponential rate, and students begin receiving their food before you do. Your hunger increases, and as a result you start fiddling with your number tent and making squeaking noises with your straw. You wait and wait and wait some more, and then finally, you see it. You see the server carry that beautiful orange and white box on a old beat up tray, and you know it is yours. It has to be yours. And then it happens. The server rounds the corner and the tray is placed right under your nose. They asked what sauce you would like while you hide the number tent in your bag before they can swipe it, and you go to town on those tenders without a care in the world who is watching.
Faith was exercised that day with those chicken tenders. Still don’t believe me? Let me break it down. According to the dictionary, faith is complete trust or confidence in someone or something. When the imaginary you walked into Whataburger and ordered your food, you put TRUST in the cashier that they would properly take your order and passed along said order to the kitchen, as well as had the CONFIDENCE that the employees would prepare the food to your satisfaction and serve it to you in your seat.
Now this is a very basic example of faith, but let's look at what biblical faith looks like. These three versus show what it means to biblically have perseverance, protection, and identity in God.
1 Peter 1:6-7
“In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”
Isaiah 41:10
“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
Colossians 2:6-7
“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”
One of my favorite quotes of all time is “Man can only enjoy that which he acquires through hard work and toll,” and I really think that this quote had to do something with the verse from 1 Peter. Chapter 1:6-7 talks about building a “genuineness” in your faith by going through tribulation and toll, but through that pain a suffering you come to the realization that at the end of the day, that too shall pass along with the consequences and what remains is God’s hand extended to you, reminding you that all things happen for a reason and what you choose to take away from it is solly up to you. This is promised by God in Isaiah when God commands to not live in fear, dismay, doubt, insecurity, etc. He is your strength to carry on, and even when it feels like you have the burden of the world falling on you, you are still continuously being lifted up. Colossians 2:6-7 gives us the foundation to our faith and our lives, which is found in Christ and the Cross.
So there was this guy named Abram. Abram was ninety nine years old when God made a covenant with Abram, and Abram was deemed “Father of all Nations”, however, he needed to have a squad of children to be able to build nations. God changed Abram's name to Abraham, and Abraham went on to do the Lord’s work, BUT, God did not begin Abrahams family at first; God wanted Abraham to earn his nations first. Abraham did the Lord’s doing and worked hard for a long length of time, and in that long length of time, Abraham and Sarah(Abraham’s Wifey) doubted whether they would birth even one child. God made Abraham and Sarah work on their faith, and though they doubted and had suspicions, they still stay true to God's plan, and in the end, God blessed the couple with a son named Isaac, sparking the beginning to Abraham's prophesied nations. (Here’s a simple bullet point to take away from this: God is not going to give you the BIG things if you are not willing give him the LITTLE things.)
Questions that you need ask yourself:
Where in my life do I exercise faith the most?
Am I only faithful when I need a way out of a predicament?
What big things am I wanting/needing that requires big acts of faith?
Can I build an unwavering faith through knowledge and research?
Who is the most faithful person I know and what can I learn from them?