Do You Have What It Takes?

1/12/24

As I look out of the large picture window in my den, my normal view is degraded by a dense shroud of clear water droplets commonly referred to as fog. The visibility is about 50 yards or so and it shrouds the beyond in mystery. Is it safe? Is there danger out there? While I know pretty much what lies out there and beyond the current view, it only takes a bare minimum amount of faith to walk out there with a fair amount of certainty I’ll be safe. But see, I also know there is a bull or two out there as well as some EXTREMELY protective momma cows. I also know there’s idiot’s out there with guns on the hunting lease breaking the rules. I also know there are coyotes out there so now that same innocent trek takes a little more faith. But what if this was a place I had never been before? What if I DON’T know what lies beyond the fog out there? This is where your faith journey REALLY begins.

I have a friend that is a self proclaimed atheist and one time while we were having dinner, he basically said “You Christians talk about having faith in God to help you and be there for you. But faith lacks the confidence of knowing. I can have faith that the light is going to come on when I flip the switch but I don’t KNOW that the light will come on. So do you have faith or do you KNOW”. He had a point. Either you believe or you know; it can’t be both. Faith and belief are moveable, they can be shaken and create uncertainty. Knowledge ( through Holy Spirit and life experiences) CAN NOT BE MOVED!

This is the “milk” versus the “meat”. This is religion versus relationship. Understand, Even Jesus asked God “ Why have You forsaken Me?”, even KNOWING who He was and what He was sent here to do; He signed up for that. He knew God had turned away as as the Messiah took on the sins of the world. See, Jesus’s faith wasn’t shaken He knew God so well that He knew God had turned His eyes away.

It’s easy to sit there and say you trust God with everything but do you really? Do you trust Him enough with your finances to give an honest tithe (10%) or give extra or elsewhere when Holy Spirit compels you to? Do you trust Him with that loved one that is lost in addiction or are you still trying to fix them yourself? Do you really trust HIm in romance or do you insist on looking for someone yourself because you want children or worried you are going to be alone? It’s easy to say yes to these questions but your actions are telling the truth. Do you fret over things or people or worry much? When you pray, do you pray for a specific outcome or His will? When a loved one is dying with cancer are you praying for God to heal or are you praying “Your will be done”? When you REALLY want THAT boy/girl do you keep asking Him for that person just knowing they are THE ONE or do you ask “Your will not mine, and if they are not for me, please show me and guard my heart.”?

We are humans and there will always be doubts. Don’t let one of those doubts be God’s plan for you; plans to prosper you and not harm you. Do you have the little faith to walk in the familiar pasture called life when you can see what lies ahead? The little more faith when visibility it’s a little foggy? Or can you walk out in the foggy unknown, beyond the fog, beyond faith?