FAITH

Journey to Breiter Futures

Faith is an interesting decision, choice, is emotional and spiritual in all practices. Not everyone who believes in God has Faith and not everyone who has Faith believes in God. We put our faith into the tangibles; the seen versus unseen; in people and power and position! We demonstrate faith in every way imaginable often overlooking what it truly means to have faith, be faithful and reflect faith.

As we wind down from our week and for those of you out celebrating Halloween with parties or kids trick or treating; I want to ask where does your faith lie? Where do you find yourself leaning towards when you think about faith? What do you think faith is? Faith is amazing! It's amazing and wonderful and a tremendous quality to have. When walking by faith, we truly allow God to work in our lives, our hearts and in what we can share with others through the reflection of that faith in all we do.

But faith is not easy, nor is it natural as it once was during the time in the garden of Adam and Eve. And, even then, because of a desire to believe that they knew better than God, they took of the fruit that was the catalyst to where we are today. The bible tells us to have the faith of a child but how do we do that or come to a place in our lives where we CAN do that - consistently? Well, I think that as we mature in our walk with Christ; as we grow weary of the battles that rage within and without, and turn to God for guidance Faith gets easier. I think that while we are not all given the spiritual gift of Faith, the gift of faith lies within us and all we have to do is believe.  Many of us have a great deal of faith in ourselves. We trust ourselves to follow the rules, or play nice with others, or have faith in friendship. But as I look around, I see people who, because of circumstance, bad experience or who have witnessed, or experienced first hand horrific trials, have little or no faith. I have heard more times than not "that we are mere puppets with God as the ultimate puppeteer", but I disagree. And history past and present have examples and demonstrations of people like me, disagree.

I believe GOD! Period. no explanation or debate required. I believe GOD because God has never failed me. My parents failed me, my family has failed me, friends have failed me, but most of all I have failed me, and in doing I have failed so many others. And the consequences of each and every action, or lack of. We are so quick to blame our problems and bad choices on something we cannot see, yet when asked if we have faith of a child most of us cannot say we do. We say we believe there is a God; we say we believe in God; but if we say these things then should we not also respond to trials and triumphs in a manner that reflects that very claim? Perhaps time spent reflecting on this particular gift would be insightful, meaningful and bring answers where none were before.

If you believe you can blame God for all the wrong in the world and that He is a vengeful God then you are a hypocrite. You cannot blame God with one hand and then turn around and say you have faith there is a God in the other. Wanna know why?  Because those two statements contradict each other. If God is the Father then His decisions in our lives are a direct cause or consequence of our choices. If I decide to lie to keep from getting into trouble and to protect my sorry butt, then as a good Dad, I would hope he would allow me to face the consequence of the situation so that I might learn, grow and develop a deeper understanding to know the Father Heart of God, and His will in my life. Well that same logic applies to all things great and small.  I would rather  have the FAITH of a child, than go through my life being a hypocrite to the very faith I write about. I love God with all of my heart. I love to share His message of faith, hope and love in all that I do. Will I always be successful, definitely not. But I would rather go through this life fighting the good fight (Romans 20:24) and walking by faith not by sight (Hebrews 11:1) because in that I learn to trust and believe and treasure and behold all that is God's.

It is odd to me that in all this time, I did not write something about FAITH even though all of my blogs are about precisely that. Kat once said to me, back in the Tektronix days, "first you get the facts, then you get the feelings, then you get the faith"...I'll never forget that or her...God used her to give me something wonderful; something that would stay with me for the rest of my life. I may not always have faith in friends, or love, or life or myself;  but my faith in God is what matters most & He will never let me down; never leave me barren; never find me without hope; and will always fill me with love when my cup is empty. Hebrews 11:1 is my life verse...and I pray everyday that I live that!

pebble out