How is Your Faith?

Don’t answer quickly, really dig a bit and ask yourself, “is my faith alive and well? Does the question bring tears to your eyes? Do you have some positive or negative answers? Do you have some “Yes-but” answers?  

Do you have visions of sitting in church with fellow believers? Are you wishing for one more chance to play games at a church social? Do memories of potluck aromas, wafting into the sanctuary, make you hunger for the togetherness of congregation? These are some of the superficial, but tangible, memories we hold on to, hoping they will happen soon in the future. 

But underneath it all, how is your faith? Do you wonder where God is in all of this? When a loved one dies of the virus, do you have questions? His word has answers.

God is fully aware of our plight and our heart aches. He formed us and knows what we are going through (Isaiah 45:7). He has asked us to keep our faith, to rejoice and have hope, to be patient as we quarantine from this virus and to be constant in prayer (Romans 12:12). God wants us to take comfort in the fact that He gives us peace through this storm. He says that we should take heart because he has overcome the world (John 16:33).

As you reflect on your faith, take comfort in how God looks at you and is proud of you for how you are trusting in Him during the crisis. He was so proud of Job for what he endured and how he kept his faith in God (Job 1:8-22). God allows crisis like this virus to come into our lives to refine us and to show Him that our faith is genuine. When your faith stays strong through these trials, God is greatly comforted that you will stay strong to the end of the earth and that He will see you in heaven (1 Peter 1:7). We often think of heaven as our final goal and our reward for enduring earth. But think for a moment about how God views it!

Heaven is vacant, it is ready and waiting for you. God is hoping every day that your faith in Him endures, does not give up, and continues to hope and grow. Because God knows that the culmination of everything he has been doing for thousands of years intersects with one ingredient. The faith of his people -- All from that little grain of faith that He implanted in your heart. 

Your growing faith not only benefits you but it is God’s reward! It is your faith that will keep you in his will even though you cannot “go to church.” It is your faith that allows God to be your Heavenly Father and you to be His “royal child!” It is your faith that gives God confidence that He will see you soon! And it is faith the reminds us that “that day” will be indescribably happy for both you and God! 

God gave you faith as an important ingredient in your life. How is your faith?