II Corinthians 5: 5-10
"Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. We live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad."
I am a visual person. Show it to me, prove it to me, let me touch it, smell it, taste it. Then I will believe it. But as I am learning now it is not the way that God works. God expects us, as the Apostle Paul states in II Corinthians for us to live by faith, not by sight. Ouch!
How do we become people of faith? How do we learn to follow God regardless of our circumstances?
Faith is not a part of who we are - it must be all of who we are. Sometimes I think I have lost sight of that. I keep thinking I must be doing something – I need to fix things – I need to say something or do something. Yet, as I reflect on those times when I ran ahead of God it was a losing proposition. Maybe not initially, but certainly down the road.
When we think about examples from the Scriptures of people who walked by faith – God also provided what happened when they didn’t. I think about Abraham. When God sent him out of his homeland, he went. He didn’t question. Yet, when confronted with who Sarah was, rather than trust God to get him out of the situation, he lied. He said that Sarah was his sister. Why? Fear! I am so often afraid too. I think how in the world can I live by faith in certain situations? Or how about the promise that God gave to Abraham of a son. Abraham waited for a long time but then because Sarah became more and more anxious about the lack of fulfillment of the promise – Abraham took Hagar and from that came Ishmael. Why? I believe it was lack of trust when God didn’t move in their time frame. Guilty! Wow, am I guilty! I want things when I want it.
I am learning that the only way that I can honestly walk by faith and not by sight is to constantly remind myself of what God has done. Has He been faithful in the past? Has He been faithful to His word? Those questions I know in my head are answered with a resounding “yes”. But, my actions do not send out that same signal. So in order to have my actions become congruent with what I know to be true then I must learn to rest. I must learn to wait. I must learn not to run ahead of God.
Truth be told – I want to be a woman of faith. I want to see God do what He promises to do. I want Him to use me as He would want to use me. This means that I must fight fear, I must fight the desire to be in control, and I must fight the temptation to lie. All of this boils down to being willing to surrender to the lordship of Jesus Christ and to see that the Spirit has been given to us as a deposit of what is to come.
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1 comment:
This is so good. I wrote a post on Sarah a couple days ago that will go up sometime, just not sure when. (I'm guessing He'll let me know.)
One thing I have learned--how important it is for faith to be based on truth. The only one who can tell us the truth is God. Not that He doesn't use others to do that from time to time...but we must learn to listen for Him in others.
My prayer over the past couple years has been this:
Truth in the innermost part of my being.
Faith to believe all and only what is true.
Purity of heart, that I may desire only that which He desires me to desire.
True humility--fear of God and not of man.
Strength to be obedient to do whatever He asks of me.
These are the things I believe that give us the ability to see and hear Him.
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