HOW BIG IS YOUR FAITH
My daughter has been doing several pieces of training for me and some ladies on how to use Instagram. There are so many components involved with creating posts and stories, and also what type of hashtags that you should use. It has been a fabulous series, and everyone involved learned a lot. Now that the series is over, we want more training in other areas of our life. So, she has decided to do a Vision Board training. A vision board is a collage of images and words representing a person’s wishes or goals, intended to serve as inspiration or motivation. The reason that you need a vision board is to motivate and inspire you. A vision board is a concrete and tangible product that represents your hopes, dreams, and aspirations.
How many of you have read any of the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” books by Jack Canfield? I bet that most of you have read at least one of these best-selling books. Canfield has been quoted saying that “Creating a vision board is probably one of the most valuable visualization tools available to you.”
As part of getting ready for this Vision Board training, I started making a list of things that I would love to happen in my life for 2020. I included all areas of my life, including my dreams for my family, my health, my relationships, and my businesses. But then I stepped back, and I asked myself this one very important question. “Do you think that these will happen?”
If I was honest, these were things that I would “like” to see happen, but my mind tells me that they “won’t” happen. I am letting my circumstances dictate what can happen. Because something is hard to get, I am allowing my mind/devil tell me that it “can’t” happen.
Where is my faith? Where is my expectation of what the Lord wants for me? Is anything too hard for the Lord? I know the answer to the last question is a big NO. The Lord can move mountains; He can quiet the seas. He can raise the dead back to life. So, I have faith, but my expectation level is low. I know that HE can, but I don’t know that HE will.
Mark 11:22-25
22 “Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. 23 “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 25 And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”
Even though this is one of my favorite verses in the Bible, I don’t put it into practice. Verse 24 gives you the formula for achieving your dreams; “ask for in prayer” and “believe that you have received it” and “it WILL be yours” is what the verse says. It doesn’t say for us to think about what we would like, it says to ask for in prayer. The verse doesn’t say to hope that you will receive, it says to BELIEVE that you already have received it. It doesn’t say it might be yours; it says that it WILL be yours!!! So, this brings me to the question, “How Big Is Your Faith?”
This sounds like a math formula to me. It is Ask + Believe = Miracle, or as I heard one person say, Faith + Expectation = Miracle. If you want to see the Lord move in your life for big things, then you have to have faith in the Lord, and you have to expect that He will bless you. Then sit back and watch what the Lord can do, and be sure to give HIM all the glory. Because, if you could have done it by yourself, you already would have. Glory to our God!!!
Have A Blessed Day!
I have that scripture on my desk I read it every morning. It is on my Why board so I remember to not take my eyes of the Lord and keep them on Him
“Because if we could have done it ourselves, we would have done it already”…..that sticks with me. Thank you for another blessed Sunday edition!
I love your Sunday posts. They are so inspirational. I look forward to reading them every Sunday. God Bless!
Love this post! Thank You! My devotional this morning said, “Do what you can do and God will do what you can’t.” I also read to “expect” what I desire. Your post is so aligned with my morning devotionals. I guess God is trying to tell me something. Thank you! Have a wonderful day!
The thing to remember is ‘our’ timing is not necessarily God’s timing. Yes, He does say ASK and it shall be given but we only see the immediate…… God knows all and what is best for is. It doesn’t mean if we don’ get something our faith isn’t enough. God blesses us and answers prayers but it’s not always as we want or expect. God is all-knowing and knows what is best for us and works everything to our good!! Have faith always and rely on Him.
Everything is in the Lord’s timing. His answers don’t always take the shape that we see in our minds, but they are usually for the best. I have seen Him answer my prayer, but not in a way that I wanted to happen. I sometimes laugh when I say a prayer asking for something as I add, “but don’t do it this way please.”
Well said, Rose. Praying and knowing however it turns out that you really want His will is the key!
After being saved for forty years, I still can’t tell you why to us it seems like God doesn’t always grant us the answer to all our prayers but I don’t agree with preachers who tell someone “you just didn’t have enough faith”. God has our best in mind so we might be asking for things out of his will or maybe the answer lies on down the road. I believe in Jesus and I know who holds my future even if I don’t always see an answer, it doesn’t mean he didn’t hear me. Keeping our faith until the end is all that matters. He loves us.
Eve, I think that God does answer our prayers, it might be the answer that we want, however. But, I believe with all of my heart, that the Lord wants to bless us. He wants us to ask and rely on Him for all things. I don’t mean to imply that He is a Jeanie in a bottle, but instead, I think that He wants us to pray audaciously for things beyond our wildest dreams so that He can show His power.
You are right on Tania – Believing that we will receive is key! We are not talking name it and claim it -I doubt a million bucks is going to show up on my kitchen table just by saying it over and over BUT……..Psalm 37:4 – says -delight yourself also in the Lord and HE will give you the desires of your heart .So when God places a desire in your heart ( he did create you after all) then you have to believe and have the faith (we walk by faith and not by sight) for it to come to pass. Too often Christians can’t bring themselves to say ” I just don’t have the faith for that “- they truly deep down don’t believe it WILL happen ( and get offended when you suggest that) As long as it’s a desire that is in line with the word, I’m believing for it . Sometimes we sell God short — he is GOD a good good father and you are right I believe he is just waiting for us to take him at his word!