An important part of moving to a new community is the process of finding a new
church home, and we have just begun that process. But the sermon we heard yesterday was a good
reminder of what I know to be true about faith:
it often involves risk. In fact, without risk, faith isn’t really
being practiced. If we already could see
all of the outcomes and they seemed reasonable,
why would we need faith?
Sometimes we think of faith as an end in itself, but that’s
not what the Bible teaches. Faith has
been designed by God to make us more
Christlike. Becoming more like Christ is
a lifelong process of growth; and
growth almost always has some pain attached to it. That’s why struggling in our faith doesn’t mean we’re sinning or not on track
with God – it’s just part of growing. A
perfect example of this is Job’s story in the Old Testament: his struggle with
trusting God moved him closer to God and was therefore ordained by God.
We all go through different things and face different
trials. We all have to practice
exercising faith, and we all struggle at times to trust God in the midst of our
messy lives. During the era that I was
being raised, the songs and sermons I heard on a regular basis fostered the
idea that the Christian life is always happy
and is easy. There is still an element of teaching out
there that caters to a Christianity of comfort. But faith is not always easy, and comfortable Christianity is powerless. Real power and real joy only happen when we
allow God to work in us as we continue to work hard and struggle in our faith (Philippians 2:12-13). How grateful I am that my faith is in a God
who can always be trusted because his character
is unchanging and he always keeps his promises!
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