Faith Part 3 – An Everyday Pursuit
As we proceed both with an international adoption and starting an orphanage in Haiti, the idea of faith has been extremely vital to everything we do. When I have preached at RiverTown Church on a few different occasions, I will occasionally say something like, “There are some topics that I come from a position of strength and knowledge, and others that I am teaching even as I am learning about them.” What I mean is that each of us have different strengths and weaknesses in all areas of our life, and the same is true of our relationship with Christ. So if I was teaching the theological concept of how GOD reveals Himself to us, I may come into that topic with a strong or weak understanding of how to teach it. And if I was preaching on the idea of serving others and putting others above myself, I may come into that topic with either a strong or weak example from own life of living that out and in turn being able to teach it. I hope that makes sense, I can sometimes ramble…
Anyway, I want you guys to understand that I am writing about this topic of faith as a man who is still trying to live every day by faith. I hope from my 2 previous posts that it did not come across like I have this faith thing figured out. I can read in the Bible about how important faith is. Especially in the Gospels, faith holds such a high priority in the teaching and healing ministry of Jesus that it is amazing to read. And then from the last post, the idea of faith in the great saints of the Old Testament (as seen in Hebrews 11) is so evident. Even the idea that Jesus can be amazed at a person’s faith. I read recently about 2 times in the Bible when Jesus was amazed: Mark 6:6 when He was amazed at the lack of faith of the people in His hometown, and then in Luke 7:9-10 when He was amazed at the centurion’s faith.
Faith is so important, and everyday I am trying to learn this lesson, and so many times I fail. It is just so easy to rely on yourself. It is so easy to forget that we have a GOD who loves us and cares about us, and who, by-the-way, also happens to have an unlimited supply of power that is more potent and effective than anything else in creation and history. We have an awesome GOD who loves us and cares about us. And to personalize that a little more, I have a GOD who loves me and cares about me. Who thinks of me as, calls me, and has adopted me as a son. How easy faith should be…
But one thing that I have noticed (at least about myself) is that it is not easy. Please understand this, I struggle everyday (as I know many of us do) with learning how to turn everything over to my Savior and my GOD. And I hope that every day of my life I struggle with this because it is within this struggling that GOD brings me closer and closer to Him. I want to have a faith that amazes Jesus, I want this more than anything. And I want to have an incredibly strong faith that understands this passage in Matthew 7:9-11 “Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in Heaven give good gifts to to those who ask Him!”
Please don’t misunderstand what Jesus is talking about here. He is not saying that He will give us whatever we want every time we ask Him. He is saying that He knows how to give us good gifts. He knows how to take care of us! We have a Father in Heaven who controls everything in the world, who holds all things together, and who created every little thing we have ever seen or discovered…And that same GOD looks at me as His Son, in fact, has adopted me as His son and I am a son indeed!
So everyday, I want to pursue true faith in my Savior, and I can honestly say that I am very far away from that right now. But I want to wake up everyday knowing that my GOD loves me and allowing that to change my faith…Join me!