Faith | Day 11
Romans 10:17; Acts 3:16; Romans 8:28; Matthew 17:18; Isaiah 40:31; Matthew 13:54-58
Please comment below with your conversation with God and/or insights from today’s Scriptures.
You can answer the following:
What are the Scriptures telling you about faith?
Are you learning to walk by faith? Share an experience when leaning on God worked out beyond what you hoped?
What is your prayer to God regarding faith?
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ExtendoVision | Lemuel Ayudtud
Seeing beyond what is in front of you can be so valuable, in fact, there are times that it can be life saving.
When I was maybe 17 or 18 years old, a group of my friends went to the New York border of Canada and the US. For the very first time, I was able to see and experience the great Niagara Falls. It was a fantastic trip, one that I’ll never forget. One of the unforgettable moments from that trip was driving through fog just maybe a few hours away from the falls. The fog was so thick that we could only see maybe 2 feet from the van we were riding in, if that much. I remember inching our way very slowly through the fog as we had no clue what was ahead of us. What’s worst is that it was like 2AM in the night
Those tremulous moments often remind me of what it’s like to live by faith. We couldn’t see ahead, around, above or behind. Just mist so think a huge truck could have came out of nowhere and hit us and we would have only known milliseconds before impact.
Faith is heading onward no matter the visibility of the path one is on. There is a hope that as you inch forward the road would be there and not a ravine. It’s plowing ahead believing that you will get to the other side maybe slowly, but safely.
It’s difficult to live life without faith. There are so many low visibility points that navigating life without faith will make you freeze right on site, frozen by the fear of the unknown. It maybe the reason why Jesus said the seeming contradiction of “he that will hold on to his life will lose it, and those who will lose his life shall gain it.” If we go on in life trying to preserve what little we have because we’re afraid of losing, will find ourselves losing everything at the end. But if we learn how to forge on and move forward no matter the thickness of the fog of problems and concerns, we’d find that we have lived life more abundantly at the end.
Faith is not the removal of fear, though, only perfect love does that. Faith forges on in spite of fear, because there is a hope for a better end.
You don’t have to be fearless in serving God. In fact you can be trembling in fear. Faith in serving God in moments of fear and doubt. Faith then is running across the valley with just a sling and stone believing that God will back up what you believed Him capable of doing. Faith is considering walking out on the waters to meet Jesus a far safer proposition than staying in a boat in the midst of the storm. Faith is believing that even though the devil is real and he has it out against us, God is our greatest help and with God on our side nothing can separate us from Him. Faith is hearing bad news and instead of collapsing in hopeless distress, you rise up and resolve to know that everything will work together for good because of the purpose of God.
Faith is seeing good in the midst of evil. It’s seeing life in the midst of death. It is seeing victory in the midst of certain failure. And it is also seeing that simple, daily trust in God will gain you new levels and news successes in the near future. Faith is also living daily on purpose knowing that your steps are ordered by the Lord so you’re not fully surprised when obeying God’s word and leading places you in rooms and spaces you never thought possible. That with God all things are possible; that your end will be greater than your beginning and that what He started in you today (or years ago) will blow your mind later. That His goodness will overwhelm you at the end, if you don’t quit.
Even though life is often loaded with attacks from the left or the right, if we walk by faith we’d be able to see the unseeable. Victory is tenable, success is achievable, triumph is at hand. Like driving a conversion van through the valleys of upstate New York through fog, faith gives us the extendovision—a sight that goes beyond the 1 or 2 feet of visibility in the middle of darkness.
Lord, thank You for giving me faith! Thank You for helping me see beyond sight. Thank You for leading me to have my hope founded on You. Keep me, Lord, from taking my eyes away from You. In moments when I can’t see the end, help me not to be motivated by the fear of loss; keep me from feeling the dread of it. Teach me to trust in Your provision and help. Help me to know that You got me. And, Lord, increase my faith daily. Guide me to anchor myself when all I want to do is drift away in my thoughts and fears. I pray this in Your matchless Name, Jesus, amen.
Faith | Day 11 Conversation | 21 Days
