Faith - Some Thoughts
By Mike Rule

I have been thinking about faith today. God brings things into my life and I have to pause and say, "Huh?" He is slowly renewing my mind and allowing me to see Him in all things. Here is what I have been thinking about.

Faith is not believing and receiving. Faith believes no matter how long it takes to receive. An even greater faith believes even if it never receives. The Greek word for faith means trust and confidence in God and all that He says. What many define as faith today isn't faith at all. It is a cheap imitation of true faith. The true test of faith is not in whether your prayers are answered. It is whether or not you will trust Him even if the answer is no or not yet.

Our God has an IQ that is unfathomable. He has a perspective that is so beyond our shallow view. Should we make our requests known to Him? Of course, but should we expect to get our way with Him? No. Jesus lived this for us in the Garden of Gethsemane. "This is what I want Father, but nevertheless, not my will but thine." (Matthew 26:39)

Can we accept that God may not heal, He may not alleviate your circumstances, He may not bring you a mate, and He may not stop a tragic situation. Why? Because He has a plan and a purpose in all things. Some would say God would never want us to experience tragedy and hard times, and they fight to stop these things. They go out seeking for things that God didn't intend for them because they are unwilling to believe and wait, or believe and wait and never receive. Why? It is simple. We don't really know our God. You can't trust someone you don't know.

God is in all things. Both the positive and negative circumstances are allowed into our lives for one purpose: to bring us a revelation of our desperate need for Christ. I'm not talking about our need to be born again, but our need to be saved from the daily hell in which we live. We often settle for cheap imitations because we are unwilling to trust. We look for anything positive as a sign that God is in our situation to justify our actions. The negative situations of life are often the "lemons" that God will use to make "lemonade." He takes the most bitter and sour things in our lives to give us something wonderfully refreshing and sweet. We throw away the lemons and seek for something that we think will be sweeter and we miss the blessing of what God is about to do.

A fellow once said, "If you fix the fix that God sent to fix you He will send another fix to fix you. And if you fix that fix he will keep fixing fixes until you are really fixed."

Many people experience one hard time after another and claw their way through them, only to get on the other side of it and see another hard time staring them in the face. God does not cause us to sin and He never tempts us, but He doesn't shy away from putting us in situations in which He knows we can sin. Many alleviate their sinful situations by working their way through them in the power of their flesh only to end in another - possibly worse sinful situation. Then they wonder how they got there and hate the way they are living. The reason is simple. God wants to deal with the heart. If the heart isn't dealt with, no amount of effort is going to change anything for the long haul. God does not honor efforts to be self-righteous. He will let us keep struggling and failing until we will yield to Him and see our desperate need. Is He cruel? Does He enjoy seeing His children suffer? No, but He wants us to see our desperate need for Him.

Why does He want us to see our desperate need? It is because He loves us and wants to demonstrate that love to us. God passionately wants to pour out His love upon us. He wants to make us truly happy and fill us with utter joy and peace, no matter our circumstances. I have had people tell me, "I think I know what will make me happy..." They are unwilling to receive the things of God because they really do love what they are doing. They are only fooling themselves and think they are fooling others, but their misery is written in their eyes and all over their faces. God is working to bring them to the end of themselves, but it is hard to see how much self-inflicted misery, sin, pain, and trouble they will have to go through before they are willing to yield and trust.

God has a plan for each of us. His plan will bring more joy, and peace and happiness into our lives than anything we could ever imagine. We lack faith and trust because we have a false view of who God really is. Ask God to reveal Himself to you. Ask Him to allow you to get to know Him for who He really is. He is truly the greatest joy we could ever know and He passionately loves each of us!

Am I willing to receive? Am I willing to believe? Am I willing to be brought to a place in my life that even if I never received a thing from Him again, the reality of His life in me is enough? I don't know, but I want to be willing!

He is worthy. He is awesome and He dwells in each one of us!! Having Him is worth every effort He'll make to reveal Himself!! Let us all seek and receive Him today!