This year I celebrated 33 years of walking by faith. From the beginning of my faith journey to my life today, God has never changed or left me to walk in this life alone. He has sent me people to encourage me at the right time. He has called us to move ahead of troubled times. He will provide us with what we “need” when we need it. I have seen and can confidently say, that God is faithful. God sent Christ to this world to show us how to walk a consistent and bold life of faith. Everything He has instructed us to do, Christ, modeled during His time on earth. Hebrews 4:15-16 teaches how we can maintain a life of faith, that is undergirded by the power of God.  “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.  Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.“

Christ experienced what it was like to exist as a human. He felt our pain, he learned how we struggle with temptation. He got to see firsthand how sinful nature corrupts us. He knows how we think, act react, and how our hearts are so inclined to want their way. I love what Romans 8:35-37 teaches us about the power God provides for us to walk this journey of faith. “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?  Just as it is written, “For Your sake we are being put to death all day long; We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”  But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Hebrews 13:7-9 teaches us, “Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings; for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, through which those who were so occupied were not benefited.“

When God is the object of our faith, the life circumstances God uses to test us and shape our faith, will not cause us to turn away from the faith because we trust who God is. God is not a man that He should lie. He does not promise us things He can not deliver. He is sovereign and knows all things. He has already created every day of our lives, and He knows exactly how to carry us through every episode of life. But we must trust that He is who He says He is. This is faith. Faith is not in the worldly possessions we have. When the things that God has given us are taken from us, and it results in a turning away from the faith, then our faith is not rooted in Christ, it is rooted in how God makes us feel. God desires those who will worship Him in Spirit and truth. The truth about who He is. Hebrews 11:6 teaches us, “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” If we do not believe and trust God and what He says about Himself, us this life, and the life to come, our faith will not be grounded. God never changes, and when life’s tribulations come, neither should it rock our faith.

The Scriptures call for us to examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith. If anything in this life can turn you from God, then He is not the object of your faith, worldly possessions are. Be Blessed!