Faith

Without faith it is impossible to please Him . . . —Hebrews 11:6
 
Yet faith must be tested and tried before it becomes real in your life.

I believe this is absolutely true.  I once said to a friend who was going through some trying times, "What is faith that has not been tried?"  Words of wisdom...straight from my mouth.  Hahahaha.  It's easy to spout that off until you are the one being socked with all the trying circumstances and are left wondering if God has left you out in the cold.  Of course I really don't believe that He has left me out in the cold...but I kind of have to wonder when we get a bill in the mail for over $500 that we have to figure out how we are going to pay.  (Thank you Mr. Boiler...our annoying resident in our basement...unfortunately in upstate NY, we cannot simply evict him.) or when I have had the 7th job interview and they call to tell me that they have chosen another candidate. (3 last summer, 3 this summer and 1 recently for a long-term subbing position.  Teaching is not a good field to be in right now.) 

Faith always works in a personal way, because the purpose of God is to see that perfect faith is made real in His children.

Lately it is much more than Mr. Boiler or trying to land the job...we have a list.  So I am struggling to have faith that this is all going to work out in the end.  One of the big questions lately that has been gnawing at me is, how are we going to send Allen off to college next year?  Shouldn't we be farther ahead by our mid-40s in order to do this?  (And how did I become the mother of a senior in high school already?...I'm certainly not old enough!

Faith is a tremendously active principle that always puts Jesus Christ first. The life of faith says, “Lord, You have said it, it appears to be irrational, but I’m going to step out boldly, trusting in Your Word”

So in all of this, I am still believing that Jesus Christ saved me and that the Lord loves me and will take care of us. (Matthew 6:25-34)  History tells me that he has taken care of us.  We have always had food on the table and clothes on our backs.  We always managed to have a car or two that ran (usually). Somehow the bills got paid...even when it seemed like they would not.  Back then I always thought it was a season of life that we were going through and that certainly things would get better and financially more secure as the years rolled on. We have new hurdles now that we didn't have in the past.

God brings us into particular circumstances to educate our faith, because the nature of faith is to make the object of our faith very real to us. Until we know Jesus, God is merely a concept, and we can’t have faith in Him. But once we hear Jesus say, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” we immediately have something that is real, and our faith is limitless. Faith is the entire person in the right relationship with God through the power of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

Lord, I must be awfully thick headed.  I keep failing your "classes" because it seems that I am going through the same types of trials over and over again.  Haven't I taken this course before?  Did I fail it?  I thought I had passed it because I got through it. What am I doing wrong? I am getting very frustrated. Here I am again in "Remedial Faith 101,"  but then again, if I graduate from this, what's next?  A harder class?  I guess that I must admit that I do not want to take the classes anymore...or at least I would like a summer vacation.  How many days until summer vacation, Lord? Yeah...I want things to be easy but that's not the way it's going to be.  Life is full of hurdles.  Some are Big and some are small.Through it all I am going to choose to remain in right relationship with God through the power of the Holy Spirit.  I guess that is what the test is all about.  Am I still going to trust Him and remain in Him?

Right now I am trying to learn prayer...perhaps that is what this is all about. 

Photo Image: "Dinner" from the album: Sum,Sum, Summer Time by my darling sister, Martha Teal.  Used without permission. :)