Faith is a tricky thing to deal with. It is constantly under attack and if you’re not careful, you’ll lose faith, if but for nothing more than weariness due to constant grief. Life has a way of making you believe some things are just not worth the trouble.
At some point each and every one of us just wants to quit. Quit your job. End a relationship. Just stay away from those situations and people that remind you of negativity and tough times. But in the case of faith, you’re always supposed to have a way through.
That way through is work. By work I mean work in the name of the Lord. Use your God-given gifts. It helps.
How often have you been able to get yourself out of the doldrums because you decided to help someone else with their issues? How often have you been very thankful for what you have because you’ve seen firsthand what others don’t have?
When it does kick in that now is the time, now is the test, then comes the temptation that challenges your faith. There are no signs on life’s highway that flash “faith test ahead.” More often than not, we recognize faith’s stop sign after we’ve already run through it.
I know I’ve botched many an opportunity to practice what I profess to preach. Talk the talk and then walk the walk. This is tricky stuff. At the end of any given day, a spiritual critique will show dozens of blown chances to witness, lead by example, help and serve. At the end of any given day, I have run faith’s stop sign again and again.
Thankfully, you’ll get another crack at it because you’re still alive and your opportunities to serve are multiplied on a daily basis. If you missed it this morning, another opportunity will come around this afternoon.
Real faith mandates a change in you. You just can’t do the same thing the same way with the same people once you’ve accepted Christ. Even though you might make the same mistakes, you will realize and accept them as just that, mistakes. Now what?
“So watch yourself. If your brother sins, rebuke him and if he repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in a day and seven times comes back to you and says, ’I repent.’ Forgive him.” Luke 17:3-4.
Further in this same passage Jesus proclaims, “So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do (by God) say, ‘We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done.’”
The fact that this comes on the heels of the apostles asking Christ to increase their faith is eye-opening. You know how incredibly hard it is to forgive those who have repeatedly come against you? But in doing so our faith is increased.
Our duty is to continue to work. Forgive and serve. Pretty soon our experiences teach us to recognize the faith signs. The more you do the more you see. The more you see the more you stop, pause, look both ways and proceed with caution.
