And yet this requires a great deal of faith.
You may think you have faith? You may be short on faith? But everyone of us will at some point will make the decision of whether or not we will take the leap, test the waters, and follow God to where he's called us.
Let me give you three reasons to enter a life of faith:
1. Doubt is not always a sign of unbelief.
Many believe; many doubt. Many doubt while believing. If we were required to access God's presence only by prefect belief we'd all be in a whole lot of trouble. Just the human condition alone (which has a hard time remembering our own cell phone number and internet pass codes) is enough to show that perfect belief is not possible.
Look at the people around Jesus. At the end of his life, he's the risen Lord. It says that while, "many people believed, some doubted (Matthew 28:17)." Did they eventually believe? Maybe some? Maybe not others? The point is belief is a process of coming to God in faith. Look at the guy in Mark who says to Jesus: "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief! (Mark 9:24)"
Faith often comes in the middle of our unbelief.
2. Faith is more about direction than amount.
Look at the woman who was healed of bleeding by Jesus. They were walking in a crowd when she reached out to touch Jesus' robe when she was instantly healed. He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease (Mark 5:34)."
Tim Keller says of this in his famous sermon series on Mark: "It's the direction of her faith that saved her, not the amount." Jesus wasn't waiting until she had enough faith; he was responding because her faith, no matter how small, was pointed at him.
Your faith doesn't need to be huge; it needs to be pointed at Jesus.
3. Faith means: resting in God.
Faith is when you take all of life and everything around and rest it before God. You take yourself and put your identity on God. You take your body and rest your ailments in God. You take your family - spouse and kids - and rest them before God. Your job, career, sex life, struggles, aspirations, hopes and dreams…all of it is placed before God.
And then, in all of it, you believe that God will move. The writer of Hebrews says, "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen (11:1)." We may not know how it will all work out. We may not see the future clearly. Nonetheless, relentlessly and with joy we aim for it while resting in the one who made this all for his glory.
To follow God in a life of faith, you don't need perfect knowledge; you simply need to obey.
AB.
PS. I'd love to hear from you! If these blog posts were inspiring or helpful, give me a shout: abrahambates@gmail.com
*written by Abraham Bates - Photography by Abraham Bates - Copyright AbrahamBates.com
*written by Abraham Bates - Photography by Abraham Bates - Copyright AbrahamBates.com
