The thing about faith is that it walks a fine line between believing with all your might for something so impossible yet confessing that God is good even when He doesn’t deliver. Because faith isn’t actually about God delivering on anything. He’s not obligated to meet our every whim. And even when we think what we are asking for is noble and right (say healing or life) it is prideful of us to think we know better than He does what the outcome should be.
No matter what trial I walk through it seems I will always have more and more to learn about what faith truly is. I’m pondering it again this week as I wait to see if He will allow me to conceive a child this month and as my husband and I walk through some very tough times with our family. We are believing for life in so many ways.
As hard as it is to walk through a time in our lives that requires much faith, I can’t imagine not believing for something. I once said, “I’ve been asking God to spare me any more heartaches so I can see how deep my relationship with Him will go apart from sorrow.” But what if sorrow is the point? What if the sorrow we experience because of this great, broken world is the best, most redeeming way to connect us to God? He originally intended for the beauty and the bounty of a perfect world to cause us to worship Him. And now, since humanity denied us the opportunity to live in such utopia we instead are driven through our sorrow to look to Him and worship Him. How easy it would be to worship Him through beauty and bounty. How hard it is to worship Him through suffering and pain. And that’s where faith comes in.
Faith sees beauty in ashes
Faith sees bounty in want
Faith hears a song in sorrow
Faith hears hope in suffering
Faith believes the impossible, yet accepts the unacceptable knowing that no matter what the answer here on this broken earth, we are promised true wholeness and abundance for eternity with Him.
So what are you believing for? What are you trusting Him with? Whatever it is, I pray your desperation for it will draw you so close to His side so that once He reveals His will you will be too blinded by His presence to really care what His answer is.
For our light and momentary trials are achieving for us an eternal glory which far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:17-18
Believing in Faith,
This is really beautiful. I think that it is true that continuing to have faith even if we don't get what "we want" can be a challenge. But that is a big part of what faith is. Remembering that God knows what is best for us.
Thanks for this post. I am going through a study right now that has caused me to look more closely at this fine line that you have mentioned. As I try to guide a new believer through the study, I am finding it difficult to explain this fine line. The line where you believe that what God has promised is true, and that He can indeed do all that He says, but that sometimes the answer is not exactly what we want… or even a "no." That sometimes faith is more about how you tackle something and persevere rather than answers. Thank you for posting…