Faith

Faith: complete confidents or trust in someone or something; strong belief in God or the doctrines of religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof

 

8 Then the word of the LORD came to him: 9 “Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food.” 10 So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, “Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?” 11 As she was going to get it, he called, “And bring me, please, a piece of bread.” 12 “As surely as the LORD your God lives,” she replied, “I don’t have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die.” 13 Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. 14 For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the LORD sends rain on the land.’ ” 15 She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. 16 For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the LORD spoken by Elijah.

I Kings 17:8-16

                       

            In America, if you want to see faith, go to any baseball game and watch the fans of the home team when they are loosing a close game and it is bottom of the 9^th.  People break out the rally caps, stand on their feet, clapping and cheering that someone from their favorite team will come through and push across the winning run.  I can have faith and believe that Nelson Cruz will hit a walk off home run for the Twins, but there is more to it than me believing in Nelson’s Cruz ability to hit that game winner.  Whether it is the pitcher throwing a hittable pitch, to Nelson not only swinging the bat, but making solid contact with the ball, to even the wind blowing the right direction.  I think that there is more to faith than just about believing in something, because if there isn’t, is our faith really worth having and it will eventually alienate us.

            The first idea is that faith is something that is continuous.  Faith is not something we get at church this one time and then stick in in our back pocket.  In essence it is not a merit badge that we obtained once for doing something great and it will stick with us for the rest of our lives.  Faith calls us to use it on a daily basis.  If our faith is going to stick around and grow, it is something that needs to be developed.  To quote Allen Iverson, “Were talking about practice, not a game, but practice.”  We have to do more than just talk about having faith, but we have to embody it and it becomes  a major part of our fabric and who we are.  To have faith or to be faithful is not a switch we can turn on and off when we feel like it, having faith, is something we do on a daily basis because it is who we are. 

            The second idea of faith is that it will call us out of our comfort zone.  Faith will take us places we never imagined, meet people that are not even on our radar, and do things that scare us.  One of the toughest things about faith is that it often calls us to things that make us uncomfortable or we don’t want to do.  How this looks is that we are following the Holy Spirits leading in what we should do, where we should go and what we would say.  Most people whether we realize it or not go by the creed of birds of a feather flock together.  In essence, we spend the most time with the people who look like us, think and act like us.  When we are faithful and obedient to the Holy Spirit, we will interact with people who don’t look, think, or act like us. 

            The third idea is that faith takes trust.  I know this is a no brainer, but how easy is it for us to trust anyone but ourselves.  I would venture to guess that most of us may have a few people we trust completely, but that’s about it.  I even think we take this distrust into our relationship with God.  How often do we not trust God because we have been hurt before, or we think we can do it better, or even because He might call us to do something that we absolutely do not want to do.  I think faith with God, we put away the “yeah, but” or the “I will do anything but that” mentality.  Faith in God does not put conditions on God or what He calls us to do.  Faith should lead to complete obedience, and not what I want to do. In essence it is vulnerability with God.

            The fourth idea of faith is that it is messy.  When we live a life of faith, we are going to get dinged.  People are going to take advantage of us, say things that are not true and even just be down right vile.  The other side is that we may not always hear God clearly or that our issues and sin get in the way, and we have to suffer through the consequences of those actions.  The other part of this is that when we have faith, that means we are being transformed and change is never easy.  In all realty it can suck.  None of us like to change, and there are even a group of us who don’t want to change.  Faith and change go hand in hand and it is messy most days.

            The fifth idea of faith is that God will provide what we need.  Just as God provided the miracle through Elijah in the Scripture above, He will do the same for us.  God provides for our needs and when we need them.  Everything is Gods to begin with and He is the owner of a thousand cattle on thousand hills.  God knows what His children need and will provide it.  If God provided everyone with the winning lotter ticket, our trust will move from in God to ourselves.  When we trust ourselves, most of us will become hedonistic and often end on a path that leads to gluttony and destruction. Faith is about who do we rely on.  Is ourselves or others, which will lead to heartache and dysfunction, or do we trust God.  We may not be rich by the worlds standards, But God will provide for us what we need when we need it.  Our faith should lead to exalting God