Faith As A Last Resort
Faith is a funny thing. We tend to ignore it until we need it. Last month, we talked about getting out of the boat and walking on the water. Well, we know that’s not going to happen without faith. Did you know that everyone has faith? Even an atheist has faith in their belief there is no God.
Depending on how you choose to live your life, faith can be an intimate friend or an infrequent visitor pulled out of the back of the closet in times of tragedy. Have you ever noticed that everyone suddenly gets “religious” when it comes to life and death situations? Why is that? Why should it take a crisis invading our lives before we think about including God? If we believe that He would help us in desperate circumstances, why wouldn’t we reach for His help all the time?
A New Way To Look At Faith
This month I want to propose a new way of looking at your faith and a few tools of how to engage it more often. Imagine if you had an army of assistants that were ready to go to work for you and all you had to do was give them instruction? That is exactly what faith is. Your faith is your servant. It waits eagerly for you to activate it and give it an assignment.
When I play with my bulldog Angel, she waits in anticipation of me throwing her favorite ball so she can run after it and bring it back. Your faith is waiting for you to throw it something so it can bring it back to you! What are you believing God for right now? If you knew you had access to unlimited resources and assistance, what would you venture to do?
Fear of The Unknown
The thing with faith is you have to understand, you won’t always know where you’re going or how things will turn out. I have made serious decisions in my life that required me to exercise the greatest level of faith I could release. I’m talking about situations where if God didn’t show up, it was going to be an epic fail. Can I tell you that God has NEVER let me down? Even if the decision I made wasn’t exactly His perfect will for me, He showed up and covered me because I was acting in faith.
That doesn’t mean that you just haphazardly run out and do something ridiculous and expect God to take care of it. I’m talking about seeking God seriously about an issue in front of you and taking a step of faith believing that He will show up in the middle of it. God has a plan for your life. Jeremiah 29:11 and Psalm 139:16 assure us of this. However, this doesn’t mean this plan happens automatically. It requires faith. God’s plan for your life is amazing and is filled with great rewards. Hebrews 11:6 tells us that “without faith, it’s impossible to please God for you first have to believe that God exists and He is also a rewarder of those people who diligently seek after a relationship with Him” (emphasis mine)
When you decide to take exercise your faith, not everyone will understand. Remember I shared last month that when Rick and I left everything in Pennsylvania in 1998 to move to St. Louis to work for Joyce Meyer Ministries, there were some people that thought we were crazy. It took every ounce of faith Rick and I had to make that move. We had no guarantees that everything would work out, but God met us at that level of faith. He showed up in our lives in such a profound way, we still cry talking about how generous He has been to us over the last 30 years.
There are so many examples in the Bible of people who had to exercise tremendous faith; trusting that God would show up otherwise everything would be lost. Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jonah, Rahab, Esther, Ruth, Mary & Joseph, just to name a few. Take some time to revisit those historic accounts and how things turned out for those individuals and their families. You will find your faith stirred by their belief in God against all odds and obeying His instruction even if it made no sense to them.
Exercise Your Faith
Faith is also like a seed. It must be planted, watered and tended to before you will see a harvest in your life. My faith journey has been incremental. I started out making small steps and worked my way up (I’m still doing that). I have made many mistakes along the way, but I know that God would rather have me step out in faith than shrink back in fear and have my faith atrophy until it is almost non-existent.
There’s a wonderful account in the Bible of Jesus’ disciples being frustrated because they were trying to cast the devil out of a young boy and couldn’t do it. The father of the boy had to go to Jesus personally to get the job done right. When the disciples had a chance to ask Jesus why they couldn’t cast the devil out, look how Jesus responds in Matthew 17:20 (NLT):
“You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.”
So how do we grow our faith? Romans 10:17 (NKJV) says “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Studying God’s Word is a big part of growing your faith. It’s like a muscle, the more you exercise it, the stronger it gets. Think about your favorite chair. You have sat down in it so many times, you have complete faith it will hold you up. Acts of faith in God’s provision is the same way. The more you exercise it, the stronger you believe in it.
During the month of November, we are extending the special bundle of all 3 of my newest book releases, plus a bonus signed copy of my autobiography, From Vegas To Victory for $40. The testimonies we are receiving from people who have been blessed and received their breakthrough from these books are so encouraging. These books are filled with accounts of exercising my faith God and seeing Him come through for me time and time again.
I am praying that you and your family have a blessed Thanksgiving holiday!
