Faith Takes Time:

My mom kindly and graciously gave me a devotional book for Valentine’s Day.  It is called “Walking Free” by Micah Tyler.  I am already in love.  It has really short daily entries that help you think.  There was an entry that I read recently about Peter.  Peter, the man who was a disciple of Jesus and helped spread the message of the Gospel and Christianity, yet has been really known for his major mistakes.  He was the man who denied Jesus three times before Jesus was walked and sent to the cross.  That is a pretty major mistake.  

Micah Tyler brings up one of Peter’s main criticisms and mishaps which is the time that he sank in water after he was walking toward Jesus.  This moment is often criticized because of his lack of faith.  He didn’t believe that God could hold on to him in the midst of the storm.  However, if you think about it, I personally have never walked on water.  I have never had enough faith to walk on water for even a second, and Peter did.  Yet, he is the one who is considered by many to have no faith. 

Then, as I have mentioned many times, we are going through Genesis in church, so we are still learning about the highs and lows of Abraham and Sarah.  There were many moments when Abraham would show faith and have complete trust in God, yet there would be times when he would lose faith.  One of the more recent lows was when Abraham laughed at God telling him that he was going to be a father in less than a year.  Abraham did not believe this could happen at first.  The Lord simply asked, “Why did you laugh?”  Abraham quickly learned that he shouldn’t doubt God and what he tells him.  Even though Abraham had accepted at that point in his life to have no children, he quickly learned that this was not the plan that God had for him in his life.    

Later Sarah would also laugh at the idea of her being a mother in less a year while she is in her 90s.   Sarah and Abraham did, obviously, have a son in a year, and they named him Isaac.  Isaac actually means, “He will laugh.”  They are highlighting the moments when they did not believe in God and how wrong they were.  Their faith has grown, and they now know that God had complete control over their life.  He can make impossible things possible.  

My overall point in this blog post is that Faith takes time.  I think there are times when we want to address people as either faithful or unfaithful.   A person can either be one or the other.  However, I realized that faith really does take time to grow.  It is not one instantaneous moment where a person goes from being unfaithful to completely faithful.  It is something that needs to be challenged and stretched.  It will sometimes feel like two steps forward and one step back, but as long as there is progress being made, that is something that should be celebrated.  

There are going to be times when even the most faithful will fall.  There are going to be times when trusting God is very hard.  There are going to be times when believing in God’s sovereignty is going to take everything out of us.  Yet, the good news is that even the biggest advancers of the Gospel and God’s Word struggled with their faith.  They had moments of great faith and great growth, but then they had moments of great defeat and distrust.  We, as followers of Christ, can take this as a great encouragement.  Even when we have moments of failure, we can rest assured that we have been forgiven for our disbelief and given another chance to have faith later in life.  

One verse I want to highlight is 1 John 5:4 which says, “For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.”  Our faith is a powerful thing that we possess and can use against the Evil one and against the sins of this world.  That being said, it is important that we are constantly trying to grow in our faith and our confidence in God.  It won’t be easy, but we have also been given a Holy Spirit from God in order to help us grow closer to Him.  

My challenge for you this week is to think about the ways that you personally can grow in your faith.  What is something that you are struggling to trust in God?  What is the area of your life where you do not believe in God’s sovereignty?  Where is your faith really being stretched?  I have mentioned many times that I am in the process of making a career change.  I am currently a teacher, but I am looking to make a change to more nonprofit work.  This is a really scary thought, and I am definitely nervous.  However, I know I just need to have faith in God in this whole situation.  He will make a job for me that is perfect.  I am finding it is not easy to give everything to God in this situation, but I am growing in this all the time. 

I am going to end our time with a prayer that I hope you will pray with me on your own: 

Dear Lord, 

Thank you for your spirit that is constantly guiding me and the people around me.  I pray that you will help me find the faith to believe in your sovereignty all the time, but please help me not to be discouraged by the moments of disbelief.  I know that in you, I can find continuous strength to be faithful.  Thank you for love and forgiveness. 

In Jesus’ Name, 

Amen