FAITH, HOPE, AND EXPECTATIONS

Today, and for the next couple of weeks, I am going to be talking about faith, hope, and expectations. These three things all rely on the other and without ALL of them, you will not have whatever it is that you are seeking. This week I am going to be talking about faith.

What is faith? According to the dictionary, faith is the complete trust or confidence in someone or something. My faith is in the Lord and not in my own abilities or any other persons.

1 Corinthians 2:5 (NIV)

⁵ so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

The very first thing we must do is pay close attention to who and what we put our faith in. It is so easy to say that we put our faith in the Lord but at the first sign of struggle, heartache, or bad news we start believing the worst instead of believing in the Lord’s power. No matter the problem, the truth is that the Lord’s will is what is going to be done. We need to praise the Lord for whatever has been put in our path and thank him for wherever He is leading us. I didn’t say this was an easy task, in fact, it is very hard and goes against human nature. As humans, we want to gripe, to complain, and to say “why me.” I have had many things that have happened in my life that I have not been happy about. I have done my fair share of throwing a pity party and crying on the shoulders of anyone who would listen. One instance comes to mind where something happened to me and I was devastated. I don’t know exactly why but during this situation I was thankful the whole time. I praised the Lord for my troubles. I prayed for those who had wronged me and prayed for their happiness. I asked for guidance and thanked the Lord daily as I felt him changing my heart and my actions. Later, after the storm had died down and the waters were less choppy, someone commented to me that they could see that my faith in the Lord had seen me through this period in my life.

Proverbs 3:5-6

5: Trust in the Lord with all your heart
    and lean not on your own understanding;
^6:  in all your ways submit to him,
    and he will make your paths straight.

I love this verse! I especially love the part where it says, lean not on your own understanding. That tells me that I don’t have to know all of the answers. It is alright if I have faith in what the Lord is doing behind the scenes even though I can’t see the path right in front of me. This gives me such confidence that even though my journey might seem like it is having all kinds of ups and downs or curves and patches of seeing nothing happen, the Lord knows exactly where I am going. I recently was flying in an airplane and I loved it when I could look out the window and see the land passing underneath me. I could see that we were going in a straight line and I knew that my destination was in front of me. Then, as we started our descent, we went into a huge amount of clouds. The clouds seemed to last forever and I was blind and couldn’t see where we were going. I had no idea if the ground was getting closer or if the plane was still going toward my destination. Most of us would have faith in the pilot and in the equipment on the plane. We just assume that the pilot knows exactly what he is doing and that the equipment is functioning correctly.

2 Corinthians 5:7

7: For we live by faith, not by sight.

The Lord is my pilot! In Him, I place my faith! His word will never fail me.

Luke 1:37

37: For no word from God will ever fail.

I have no idea what is going on in your life. I usually pray that my Sunday posts will reach someone who is in need. However, I am changing my prayer today and instead I am thanking the Lord because I have faith that He brought you here for a reason. I am thankful that He chose me as the vehicle for you.

Next week I plan on talking about Hope, I hope to see you back.

Have A Blessed Day!