Lately I have received a lot of encouragement from some of you regarding my blogs and ministry. Thank you for reading and being apart of what God's doing. Here's a little about what I'm learning presently and how I'd like to challenge you.

 

Faith is something learned. For me faith was a word I heard many Christians use but I never understood the deep meaning until recently. Faith isn't something you can "teach" it's something to expereince, something to define on your own. I had always been taught about what faith was and many of us would say that we have faith but I'd like to challenge you. What is faith? Let me tell you what I know faith is not.

 

Faith isn't giving up when your relationship with God gets too rough. Faith isn't taking back control of your life when God does something in your life that you don't understand. In the moments when you're crying, angry and upset because God didn't write your life just the way you thought it should go, faith doesn't take His name in vain, faith doesn't question His goodness.

 

I've learned that faith is praising God in the good AND in the not so good. In the midst of pain, frustration, lack of answers, tears and hurt, faith says, I'll trust you becuase I know you're ALWAYS good and you have a better plan for me, your Beloved, a plan better than anything I could ever dream up on my own.   

 

So, do you REALLY have faith? When life gets too tough do you still praise His name? Do you love Him when things don't your way? Well what if you didn't get the job you've been praying to get for weeks, what if you're 30 and your not married but you've been praying and doing all the "right things", what if someone who was a wonderful, God fearing person suddenly died that was close to you? I'm talking about the tough crap that we get handed in life! He wants to know if you'll still praise Him! The next time your life doesn't go the way you thought it was going to go or you get handed a pile of tough crap and you're ready to throw this "God thing" away, remember Job. Yea, remember Job, he had EVERYTHING taken from him yet he still said, "Naked I came from my Mother's womb and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away, may the name of the Lord be praised." Job 1:21