Just have FAITH….
Have you ever had someone tell you that? You just lost your job and are stressed about how to make your next rent payment, you just got a diagnosis from your doctor that is unexpected and scary, your dad just had a heart attack, and you wonder if he will recover, you and your spouse have been struggling and you just don’t know if you can last any longer….
Faith….it’s a fickle thing. Easy to hold on to in the good times, but, oh how quickly it can speed away when an insurmountable struggle rears its ugly head. We’ve all been there, and as a person that follows Jesus you may also have heard some additional churchy platitudes in those difficult times as well; why worry when you can pray, have faith like a mustard-seed, all things work together for good, just believe….but honestly, HOW do we put FAITH into action?
This weekend we looked at just how to do that in our first talk of our new series EPIC. We looked at one of the great stories of the faith to help develop a plan to guide us along our faith journey.
Moses, in the Old Testament, was tasked by God to go to the Pharaoh in Egypt and ask him to let His people go. Pharaoh had been enjoying using the Israelites as slave labor for many years and was not about to let that happen! As the story progressed, plagues struck the Egyptian’s and eventually the Pharaoh released the Israelites BUT as they approached the Red Sea the PHARAOH had changed his mind and was chasing them down to kill and/or recapture them. BUT Moses knew that GOD would not let them down, he had FAITH that God would rescue them in some incredible way….AND…that HE did! Parting the SEA while the entire tribe of Israelites passed unharmed through the waters but then as the Egyptian army chased them down the walls of water crashed down and destroyed them.
How can we implement that kind of FAITH into our lives? First, we need to believe what the Bible tells us, those verses that get quoted are RIGHT, 2 TIM 1:7 God has not given us a spirit of fear or timidity, but of power, love and self-discipline. When we feel fear creeping in recite this verse or other truths in the Bible that you find over yourself, pray them, focus on them. The second thing we can do is to be still and wait for God to show Himself! We’ve been busy singing about that with our new song “Be Still” Psalm 46:10 remind us of this message too! Again….speak the bible over yourself! And third, just stay calm. Easy right?!?!
I challenged everyone to pray this prayer when they felt fear or anxiety creeping in this next week and challenge you to do the same “God give me the faith to see the opportunities in this situation. Protect my faith from fear. Help me to be still and trust you and keep my spirit and heart calm. In Jesus name, Amen”
To catch the talk click here