Faith
I was asked a few weeks ago if I would be willing to write an article for the Christliche Ecke (Christian Corner) of our local Kontakt paper (a bi-weekly community news publication), and I said yes. Below is the English version of the article — intended to grab the attention of people that both identify as Christians and those that do not.
Faith.
It can be tempting to think that faith is reserved for the pious, religious, or even just the downright needy that are desperate enough to need something to believe in beyond themselves. However, could it be that we are all more a people of faith than not? Whether it is our financial security, government, home grown gardens, family, anything else we can think of, or God Himself that we put our faith in – I would like to challenge us to examine: where is it that I find my hope and security? From what source are we drawing our sense of stability and safety from?
Faith is a noun which in and of itself correlates to being a person, place or thing.
Faith can be defined as complete trust or confidence in someone or something.
Faith inherently demands that whatever we have placed our trust or confidence in will therefore provide a sense of steadiness and strength when all else shakes, changes and is uncertain. So, while faith is a noun, it leads to action.
Are you someone who considers yourself a person of faith? How have you seen this exercised and affect your life and those around you? Are you someone who considers yourself more of a free-thinker and find it silly to put faith in something beyond your personal experience and physical surroundings?
I encourage each of us to allow ourselves to not only examine the outcome of faith or a lack of faith in our lives, but to also go as far to permit ourselves to ask God to examine our hearts and minds.
“Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting!” (Psalm 139:23-24)
Whether we believe in His existence and presence or not, God is indeed real. He desires to not only reveal Himself to us in greater ways but walk with us and help us to rightly experience the effects of faith in knowing Him as our personal Savior and Friend. He is for us!
For “If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?” (Romans 8:31) The writer of Romans, is referring here to the greatest gift of all – the gift to be in right standing with God, never separated from Him and secure in our ultimate destiny no matter what happens to us or around us.
We all have the propensity to question what it is that is real, substantial, tangible, and beyond ourselves; to question what will provide security and safety in times of trouble. Rather than leaning towards the tendency we can have to either condemn ourselves in the questioning or become so swept up in it that we find ourselves in a cycle of anxiety and uncertainty – what if we instead allow ourselves to lean into the questions and continue on the journey of discovery in finding the One true person and source where a prevailing hope, security, stability, and safety are found?
No matter what our journey in faith has been up to this point, let’s dare to explore the depths of a faith that is beyond our felt or seen surroundings. Let’s dare to risk surrendering our own understanding of present circumstances so that we may find and know the ultimate One who is both worthy of our trust and faithful to reveal Himself and keep us safe in Him.
“Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him.” (Jeremiah 17:7)
Photo by Marcos Paulo Prado on Unsplash.
