In my life, I try to find simple practical solutions in my walk with the Lord. Previously, I found myself praying, asking for things and situations to be resolved according to how I thought they should be sorted out, as if God needed a helping hand!
When I found that my prayers were not being answered the way I would like them to be, I began to get a little disheartened and wondered why the Lord was apparently not listening to me. I did a bit of reading up on the topic and sought counsel from various quarters (every quarter EXCEPT where I should have gone first…and that was to the Lord!). The majority of the answers I got seemed to point to the fact that my faith wasn’t strong enough…. I was told I had to believe more…. then, the more my faith strengthened, the more answers I would get from the Lord and I would be able to perform more ‘successful’ healings. Somehow, this counsel didn’t sit well with me.
Then finally, I asked the Lord to please teach me and show me more about this situation. Time went by and the Lord opened my eyes to some interesting things.
First, there is a faith which we receive by hearing the Gospel (Rom.10:17). This is believing that Jesus died on the cross, where He took take away our old sinful nature and released us from our wrong doings. This is a saving Faith. In other words, when we read the scripture in Rom.6:1-6, it is difficult for us to understand in our minds, that our old natures died with Jesus some 2,000 years ago! However – by believing, in our hearts, the word of God, we can automatically accept this truth.
Second, there is a faith which comes as part of the personal gifts we receive when we have the Holy Spirit abiding in us (1.Cor.12:9). This is what I call a supernatural imparting of belief or trust and is experienced when the Lord wishes to exalt himself or encourage the body of Christ in a given circumstance. Peter and John’s example in Acts 3:2-13,16 is a wonderful testimony of how the Lord imparts the gift of faith for His glory. In that instant, they believed that healing would take place (imparted by the Holy Spirit). In verse 16, Peter acknowledged that it was faith in the name of Jesus that healed the man – no power of his own. Once again, it is for the exaltation of God or the encouragement of His body – never for our own glory!
Third, there is a faith or TRUST in the Lord, which grows in us on a daily basis. (Jude 1:20). This is how we learn to trust the Lord more and more on a day to day basis. Often we will have no doubt believing that God has the power to do something (heal, bless or change a situation), but we do not trust Him to do it at that particular time for us. The only way we can grow in this faith (trust), is to get to know God. The more we get to know God on a personal level (in other words not just know about Him but knowing Him), we will learn how he does things, the more we learn about Him, the more we are able to trust Him. Think about your own life – the people you trust the most are the ones you are closest to, the ones you know well. The scripture in Habakkuk is a nice illustration of a lesson in learning to trust the Lord in a given circumstance, where the Lord told Habakkuk to wait and trust on Him (Hab.2:1-4).
Lastly, we should remember when praying, that Jesus taught us how to pray. In Matt.6:10 He requested us to say “let your will be done…” If we learn to pray like this, we have no need to be discouraged if God doesn’t answer according to our desires. It is because He is answering according to HIS will. We need to believe in Him for the outcome and our trust in Him will grow. After all, is He not wiser in all things? Sometimes God allows suffering so that His will can be made complete – and we see this in the scripture of 1Peter (1 Peter 4:19).
So…. let’s not be condemned because we think our ‘faith is weak’. Let’s realise that we do believe, with all our heart, that God can do anything He wants to do at any time He wants to do it. It may just be that we can’t TRUST God enough at that point. Let’s allow the Lord then to use our daily circumstances to build up our trust in Him. As we do this, the Lord will give us our daily faith (trust)!
Thanks for sharing this time with me. Be blessed as the Master works daily in your life.
Until next time…bless you all.