Friday, June 1, 2012

Faith in Tough Times

Faith in God learning to trust Him with everything in life is an essential step in one's faith journey. God gives us opportunity to exercise faith from the start. When we choose to believe the Jesus is the person described in the Bible - virgin-born, sinless, crucified, dead/buried, risen to life, in heaven now - we take our first significant steps of faith. Any one of those facts about Jesus is worth pondering a while.

As we travel along with God, we get more opportunities to believe Him. Some are clear statements in the Bible that require us to stretch what we know or think and become molded to the ways of God. Other facts in Scripture do not give us clear cut answers to some of our questions and that leaves us with a tension that we must live with in faith in order to mature.

Other times, opportunity comes in trusting God to be good no matter our circumstance. [Exodus 33:19, Psalm 31:19]  When I was newly married, my husband had a high-risk job. Each day could have been his last here on earth with me and I wrestled with the implications for myself and our two girls as the years unfolded. I eventually realized that there was no guarantee that he'd be kept safe by God (John 16:33). In I Peter 1:6-7, God tells us that we should not be surprised by the difficulties we face and that they test our faith, our God-confidence. I learned to believe that God is good ALL the time no matter what my circumstances looked like. When Ron was in a helicopter crash and I waited for word of the outcome, I confronted whether I truly believed God to be good no matter what. That day settled it for me and I have held fast to that confidence in God so far. I know there will be trials that will test me beyond the limits I think I have and I expect to believe God's goodness eventually even if I falter along the way.

You will have difficulties in this life, too. Will you believe the goodness of God no matter what?

3 comments:

  1. So many mistakenly believe that God will provide and protect, according to what we think that should look like, rather than through the lens of his goodness. In John 16 he promises his peace in the midst of the trial.

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  2. I remember when I came to that same place 6 years ago. It was after the sudden death of a friend's husband. I had to wrestle through that for several months, but the outcome was a complete shift in my thinking about what God "promised" about keeping me safe. It turned my theology on its head, from everything I had been taught, but I believe my theology about life and death is more Scriptural now. It's actually made me LESS afraid to take risks than I was before.

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  3. Thanks for the reminder!

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