You of Little Faith

 God is continually stretching, growing, and testing my faith. Sometimes the trials are easy. Other times, they require serious prayerful seeking for help. Sadly, there are times when I need faith the most I find my faith lacking. I am at times one with little faith. I hate that fact. I want to be a man of great and consistent faith. 

To be a person of great faith I must endure great trials. I have for three decades. About the time I think I have it all down, or I try to convince the Father that I need a break, a respite from the testing, the next faith examination surfaces. Right now I am enduring five tests that keep me asking, seeking and knocking. 

In my younger years, my faith rose and fell based on the tests. When God came through in some powerful fashion, my faith would soar. When the next trial came I would doubt and spiral downward. I am more consistent in my faith now, but I have grown accustomed to prayers not being answered. I cannot say I always ask God fervently. I pray, but I know there are times when those prayers are not fueled with faith. I am just mouthing words. 

In my current trials, I have determined not to stress, not to cower in doubt or anxiety, and most importantly not to doubt God. Just today, He spoke to me twice from His words reassuring me that He knows the trials and already has it all worked out. I just can't see it yet. If my faith was in my abilities, I would have little hope. Because my faith is in God, I have all the hope imaginable. Nothing is impossible with Him. He can move any mountain, open any door, provide any need, heal any disease, cure any ailment, reveal the path of His will, save any lost person, renew any dead congregation, reconcile any relationship, and thousands of other things just like them. 

Based on God's track record of faithfulness in the Bible and in my own life, I should not be a man of little faith. I must be a man of big faith, growing faith,  and gigantic faith. He has earned the right to be trusted. No matter what I face. He is bigger and better than all of it. He is the greatest force in the universe and He is my ally. I do not have to pass my tests in my ability. I rely on Him and His strength. I wait for Him to flex His divine muscle and do the very things I need Him to do. Then, the fun begins. I get to brag on Him. I get watch people listen to testimonies of His faithfulness in disbelief. 

I embrace the path of faith. I welcome the trials as an opportunity to watch God do something amazing again. I welcome the chance to have an enlarged platform to testify of His enduring faithfulness again and again and again. Maybe when He does come through for me and I get to tell the story, it will encourage someone else with little faith to trust Him more. He even told us a little faith could move mountains. Our faith must be smaller than little faith. May He increase our belief and cast away our unbelief. We will wait and see what happens next. 

Passion

 One definition for passion is a strong and barely controllable emotion. This could be good or bad depending on what a person is passionate about. A person passionate about sin and sinning will find a path of destruction. A person passionate about knowing and following the Lord Jesus will lead to a full and abundant life. I am advocating for passion in knowing and following Jesus. 

I heard a worship song with the following words in them a long time ago; Give me one holy passion, give me one magnificent obsession, ... to know and follow hard after you. When I heard that song it expressed the deepest longing in my soul. I have many shortcomings. I am not the most eloquent. I am not the most diplomatic. I certainly am not the most educated. The one thing God seemed to give me a double portion of is passion. I feel a passion for God far beyond what I can express in words. When I preach and teach, I feel the truth in my soul as much or more than just in my head. Brenda says when I preach and teach, that I do so with my whole body. 

How can every true child of God NOT be boiling with passion for Him and His word? It boggles my mind how much lukewarmness exists in the houses of God today. Nothing should stir us more or deeper than getting to pursue knowing God day in and day out. He invites us to know Him. To pursue Him. To follow hard after Him. This is the greatest adventure or quest any of us could take. Knowing God is far different from knowing about God. 

There are scores of people sitting in church houses who have spent decades learning about God. They know many of the Bible stories by heart because they have heard them over and over again. Sadly they are apathetic, lifeless, passionless, and not pleasing to the Lord. Bible study and worship are boring to many of these people. How could that be? The simple answer is that they aren't living in a dynamic and growing relationship with the Lord. They may keep a religious routine weekly, but that does not mean they are communing with the Lord. The same is true of many preachers. Even though they open the Bible to study for messages, they do not all read devotionally and they visit the prayer closet infrequently. Few even notice the sham. 

When I get around passionate seekers of God, I see something different in them. They have a spiritual depth, a diligent focus, sanctified priorities, and they talk of God encounters that are foreign to most, but a available to us all. Passion is the zeal to not be satisfied with current levels of knowledge of the Holy One. Passion gets a person up early to turn those pages in the Bible ravenously eating up the truth. Passion is locking out all other distractions as one goes to the secret place for serious prayer. Passion is spending as much time listening in prayer as asking. Passion is taking the fresh revelation of God and sharing it with others in a gospel witness, a Bible study group, a testimony, or with a family member or close friend. 

Don't substitute passion for mere emotionalism. Many get emotional in worship. My great Uncle Buddy, who was a Nazarene preacher, often told me, "I don't care how high you jump on Sunday, how straight do you walk on Monday through Saturday." Emotions wear off. Passion is fueled by the fresh fire of new God encounters daily. Passion is needed in the pew and the pulpit today. Sometimes I wonder if the preachers really believe the things they are preaching? Do the pew dwellers really believe that they sing or hear preached. Such do not know what they are missing. They settle when they were created by a passionate God for people who would follow Him with passion.

Passion is dripping off the verses of Psalm 42:1-2. Like a dear longing for drink of water, our hearts should long for our God. Nothing or no-one can satisfy like He does. Will we ask Him to fill us with passion. To pursue Him with passion. To serve and worship with passion. To follow Him all our days with passion. He deserves all of that and more.