I have been thinking about faith this week, prompted by a devotional thought by L.B. Cowman. God is continually trying to increase my faith and show me different facets of this incredible word as I experience life.
I began by thinking about my first faith encounter–the initial experience that helped me realize God was really there. Through this experience it became so clear that I could interact with Him and really feel His presence in my life. I have also felt the discipline of faith–the times when I have to simply trust His Word. Learning, usually by trial and error, to choose to believe His word makes my life down here a little more like heaven, regardless of my circumstances. I sometimes experience the courage of faith. Those are times when God asks me to do something outside of my comfort zone or step into something that is a lot bigger or different than situations with which I have dealt before.
Then there is the patience of faith. I think of this as those times when all seems dark, and I have to remember what God has told me in the past and the promises He has given me. (I think of Abraham waiting all those years for a child and Joseph remembering his dream of his brothers and parents bowing down to him while locked in an Egyptian prison, far from his family.) There is also the trial of faith as God does some of the inward transformation, the healing of wounds. Sometimes He takes me back to the place where I was wounded or asks me to surrender my ego and some of those cherished grudges I carry deep inside.
And then there is the victory of faith as I realize the deep love that has replaced all that has been surrendered to Him and recognize the peace that is present in situations that before paralyzed me with fear. I suddenly realize that the Love inside of me extends to everyone, even to those some might call enemies. This faith life is nothing if it isn’t crazy. But it is crazy wonderful.
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