What's up Saints? I hope you all had a wonderful time yesterday celebrating the resurrection. Many of us have been going through various struggles. Sickness, financial strain, domestic relations and of all things, Church conflicts all seem to be at the top of the list. There is a song on the home page of our church website www.evangelresourcenetwork.com called "What Love Does". You should take the time to listen to the lyrics... "We hear allot about what love is. We don't hear too much about what it does though... " The writer should follow that up with another song called "What Faith Does" because we always hear about what FAITH is but we don't hear to much about what it does though.
As a result, our concept of faith is becoming more and more superficial. I'm reminded of another song, "Jesus On The Main Line - Tell Him What You Want". Not that there is anything wrong with telling Jesus what we want but isn't Faith more than that? And isn't our Lord more than some omnipotent concierge or personal Santa. I mean this to encourage you not to dis-courage you. I heard one of the saints the other day make the comment, "I'm sick because I don't have enough faith. When the Lord increases my faith I will have enough to believe for my healing."
First of all, knowing God and the Word of God enough to know that he has provided healing and that we receive from him according to our Faith; if you still don't believe, then what else is left that could convince you? Either you believe or you don't. It really is that simple. Big Faith is cool but it only takes mustard seed Faith to get the job done.
That brings me to the second point. This saint was very depressed because his prayers had not been answered yet. So I had to remind him, not about what Faith is but what Faith does. Faith continues to trust God even when circumstances say there is no hope. Hope in God. We should also remember that Faith is not just so we can get what we want. "Ye ask and receive not because ye ask amiss that ye may consume it upon your own lust." (James 4:3). Real Faith enables us to be who God called us to be and do what God called us to do. "It's Not About Us - It's About Jesus!" We prove our Faith not just by what we can obtain but by what we can offer, produce, endure, suffer, sustain, overcome, undertake, outlast or let go.
Need I say more? See Hebrews chapter eleven. It talks all about what faith does. Not to mention chapter twelve. Wow, talk about tough love.
Look, just because you don't have what you asked for as yet doesn't mean your faith is weak. In fact, if you've been praying the same prayer for a long time and you are still waiting for it, your faith is probably stronger that you think. ;->
Word-Up!
