Day 12 - A Faithful Heart
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A Faithful Heart - Josh Simmons
“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.”
Hebrews 11:1-2
It has been said that Faith is patience with mystery.
Faith is the willingness to abide in a place that you don’t fully understand the ramifications of.
Isn’t that where we are? We don’t fully understand life and why we’re here; why God created us and chose to love us.
Maybe the opposite of faith is when you’ve figured everything out- when you put your life in such a position that you don’t attempt anything that requires God.
You don’t stretch yourself into a territory that enables the faith that you need for the challenges that you face.
We can have a lot of doubt and still operate in faith, because faith is not certainty, and faith is not a feeling. (2 Cor. 5:7)
There is story, after story, after story in the Bible of God calling men and women to do things that left a wide open plain for questions and doubt to roam and graze:
God told Noah to build a boat when there wasn’t a body of water to put it in.
God told Abraham to kill his only son- who he said countless descendants would come from.
Jesus told Peter to walk on water… but humans don’t do that. Fish can’t even do that.
God told the Israelites to March around a wall and blow a trumpet. (Not a 1000-foot bomb in the shape of a trumpet…an actual trumpet.)
And God told Gideon that if he wanted to win the battle he would have to send most of the troops home. (Why?! Are Thor and Iron Man going to drop out of the sky instead of God?)
Faith doesn’t always protect us from trouble, but Faith always gives you what you need to get through whatever trouble comes.
And faith rarely - if ever - gives you most of the answers up front… but faith will always give you what you need to take the first step and the next one after that.
Faith works in the face of challenges and pain, in the face of doubt and disappointment.
That’s the kind of faith Jesus is looking for.
That’s the kind of faith that enabled Jesus to allow men… that he created… to nail him to a tree that he spoke into existence.
A faith that works, that wages war, that won’t give up, that just won’t quit, and that presses on.
A faith that doesn’t need a guaranteed outcome because it’s got a locked-in outlook:
that nothing can separate us from the love of God.
The goal as a follower of Jesus isn’t to figure ‘it’, or Him, completely out. He’s way too big for that.
The goal is to keep walking patiently, but ferociously through this sometimes foggy mystery… listening ever intently for his guiding voice, trusting that He’ll keep showing up on the other side of your every step.
This is where faith is found and built.
Scripture Reading: Hebrews 11:1-40
Spiritual Practice
Spend time bringing to God the challenges, obstacles, and troubles you might be facing.
Pray, “Jesus, increase my faith. Give me faith that leads me to trust you every moment, every day, and in every way.”