I've been doing a bit of thinking lately and I came to a realization that has me a tad bummed. Turns out I have doubts. This is not normally a bad thing, I am human after all, it is what we do with those doubts that has me interested. I am, of course, referring to my faith. Don't get me wrong, the doubts I am having are not the crippling, stop you in your tracks doubts. Just the minor ones that, left unchecked, can grow to big ones.
The doubts I am talking about specifically are the doubts that tell me to do something, "just in case God doesn't." These are the doubts that bug me the most. Do I truly trust in God's strength when I take action on my own, or is that part of God's solution? The fact is, God wants us to do for ourselves as much as we can while trusting in him to give us the strength to do so. God only acts directly when action beyond our abilities is required. Even that requires a strong faith. As I read the Bible, I find examples of strong faith that astound me. Faith that has no room in it for doubts. Faith I want. Think about it. When you pray to God for something, healing, financial aid, spiritual strength, etc, do you pray with the confidence that God will grant your request as he sees fit, or are you just praying to "cover your bases?"
The reason I am thinking on this is because we have a lady at our church who has the faith that God will grant her requests as he sees fit and has such conviction of it, that, once she has prayed about something, has the peace to move on, no matter the difficulty of doing so. Where I would pray and then wonder if what I am doing is from God or of myself, she moves with the conviction that God is acting through her. Many would call her crazy, but they also called the apostles crazy. I envy her faith and try to emulate it.
The strange thing is, faith is not a natural thing. We all naturally want to doubt anything that we didn't make, do, or say. Believing in something outside of ourselves and allowing our belief in it to direct us is unnatural. It is something we have to work at. It is something we have to use daily.
Faith is a muscle that needs exercise to grow or even stay the same. If you shelve your faith, it will shrivel and atrophy. The funny thing is, God gives us the tools we need to exercise that faith everyday. From annoying little clashes with family and coworkers to bad drivers on the road. There are hundreds of little instances where we can place our faith in God and gain his strength.
All that being said, I am taking up a challenge to strengthen my faith. I want to invite you to join me in it. I am going to do this challenge for 30 days and then assess how it went. Here is the challenge. Seek out 10 events that occur everyday that you can ask for God's strength in dealing with. I know it sounds hard, but think about God's standards of dealing with your fellow humans. I know I need God's strength to love my neighbor when he cuts me off on the highway. I know I need God's strength to keep from yelling at my sons when they tell me no. I know I need God's strength to turn the other cheek when someone treats me unfairly. I am willing to bet, there are more than 10 events everyday. If not, either you aren't looking, you live in utter isolation, or God has blessed your life beyond anything I can think of. So how about it? Are you going to join me?
Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.
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