Oh Me of Little Faith

“Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”  John 20:29  (NIV)

Trying to define the word faith is about as difficult as trying to define the word love….or hope.  The Bible tells us in Hebrews 11:1 that “faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (NIV).  A few days ago when I snapped the photo accompanying this writing, I thought about faith.  A hyacinth in my flower bed was pushing its stems upward through the snow…and I clearly saw evidence of what I had hoped for in earlier months: that a bulb buried in the ground would with certainty break through the soil, grow, and bloom.  Now it’s pretty easy for me to have faith in a flower bulb or the ignition on my car being able to start the engine…or the fact that Fall follows Summer.  But what about some bigger things in the overall picture of life?  What about having faith that an unsaved loved one will come to salvation?  What about having faith that my husband and I will have enough funds to meet living expenses in our retirement years?  What about having faith that God will take care of any difficult situation we may currently be facing?  These are all good things we hope for…but yet we see absolutely no evidence or certainty that these things will happen.  And that is where faith enters the picture—we have to believe without seeing.  Faith is a key stepping stone in the Christian walk.  Jesus said, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Hebrews 11:6 says that “without faith, it is impossible to please God…” (I think I’m in trouble, oh me of little faith)!!  So what if the things I hope for and have faith will happen…never happen?  Then I must remember that faith walks hand-in-hand with the Will of God.  It doesn’t mean that I didn’t believe enough or that my faith failed….it just means that if I accept God’s Will for my life then I must believe that what I had faith would happen simply is not in accordance with His plan for me.  After all, I can’t see for certain what lies ahead, but He can.  The greatest example of faith to which I can personally attest is that of an elderly couple in my church, who in the last 10 years, have lost three of their four adult children to highly aggressive, geneticallly induced cancers.  Yet they still smile and tell me, “God knows best.”  Now that is FAITH.

(c) 2015 Leslie O. Kelley

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