Recently asked to explain my faith, these are some thoughts that came to me. I love exploring and learning more about who God really is in my heart and my walk. Try writing your thoughts down. How do you explain your faith?
Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
Note the importance of “assurance” and “conviction”.
What “things” do we hope for? What “things” do we not see?
My faith.
It isn’t tangible.
It doesn’t come with a recipe or direction pamphlet.
Or does it?
Hmmm.
It’s easy to dust over the cover of my bible every week as I go about my chores.
But when I open it and dig into the stories found there, something interesting happens.
Story after story intrigues me and after awhile I begin to feel a connection to this God it speaks of.
First it is seeing how He loves the ones it speaks of.
Listening to struggles of hardships, betrayals, slavery, illness, death and war, it becomes apparent just how deep that love is.
As the characters spend more time with God, interacting with Him through their experiences, we connect with them as we see their human side and it unfolds a beautiful and growing relationship with God. We watch as the characters follow God, forget and wander away, scream and yell and argue with God, beg Him to forgive them and save them and how their faith deepens through the pages and the ages.
The level and intensity of this love become clearer.
As I dig deeper, the characters in the stories begin to shift as I move into the second part of the stories.
And one day, I realize I am beginning to hear my name in the story. I begin to feel His love for me. At first I am not sure I am hearing correctly. How presumptuous am I to think this great God even knows who I am.
I continue reading. This bible speaks of eternity. It speaks of forgiveness. It speaks of love. It speaks of grace, hope and one truth.
And I hear my name clearer and there is no mistaking – He knows my name. He knows me.
He let His Son die on that cross for our sins so we might be with Him for eternity. How is that possible. How can God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit love us that much? Me. You. Us.
I cry out to God as I sense my failure at managing my life. Abandonment through divorce. Few of Jesus’ friends stood at the bottom of that cross that day or the night in the garden as He prayed. He knows the feeling.
Grieving as I watched my mother die and crying out to God at the injustice. How could this happen to such an amazing woman who never hurt a soul her whole life.
God watched His Son die on the cross. The most innocent of all.
Broken at the loss of love as I received the news of my daughter in law miscarrying yet another baby. Wasn’t four times enough?
Illness robbed this world of a precious dear friend as he suffered an aneurism and did not survive.
How could a God who loves us allow such tragedy? But as I have learned over decades of loss, I will always find God waiting for me.
I would never have become the person I am today without these events. A person who lives by faith.
Because . . .
We are told to rejoice in all things.
Hmmm
How is it possible?
I have learned God is in the darkest of moments waiting for us. He wants me to open my heart and open my mind and my soul. To let Him in and to let Him love us in ways we can’t imagine in these feeble and finite human minds.
He is waiting.
A few days before my mother died as a result of injuries from the tragic accident – she grabbed me and begged me to let her go. I told her I was not the one keeping her here. It was ok for her to leave us. A time later I asked her if she and Jesus were working a few things out still. That sounds odd I guess as I read back over it but she smiled her sweet smile and nodded her head.
That’s my faith.
Jesus is that personal to me. Experience after experience draws me deeper into His space. That space where I know I am forgiven of all the messes, mistakes and sin I have tried to carry all these years.
Romans 8:37-39 “No, in all things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor ages nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
No. Thing. I’ve underlined the word “nor” every time in this scripture.
Three days before my brother in law died he grabbed my arm and with a desperate voice asked me to tell him why he was dying. Taken by surprise, I could only reply we don’t number our days or choose how the final day is determined. God tells us clearly those belong to Him. We talked about how He loves us and how we have to remember this world is hard. All our pain, suffering and grief will be gone when we get to heaven. My brother in law died three days later but I know he heard my faith in my words. I pray he grew in his in those three days.
But there is nothing we are facing here in this life that God doesn’t know about. He knows us. He loves us. He wants eternity for us to be with Him.
It is important for you to create your own list of scriptures that help you build your faith foundation. Google “scriptures about faith” and read them, write them and pray them. As the people in the bible learned their faith, so can we as we follow God’s word as it becomes real in our own lives.
With hope and love to anyone who reads this – walking with you with assurance and conviction.
Heaven is Real.
“Lord, please be near to each of us. Teach us. Show us. Convict us. We live assured of the truth of Your word. We are grateful. We long for the day we move into eternity in Your presence. We live today to honor You as living examples of Your love. Amen.”
With Peace and Joy,
Janet