Living by Faith

1 Thessalonians 5:16-24 "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil. Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit & soul & body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it."

"When I'm living by faith, I will win.  When I'm living by sight, I will lose."

Faith: believing the word of God and acting upon it no matter how I feel because God promises a good result. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, for the conviction of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1)

I have been feeling a little bit like Abraham in Genesis. God has placed a call on my life.  A call that requires me to put one foot in front of the other every day, when I have no idea where it will take me. A call to have faith in things that are unseen and unknown.  I have no idea where I am going or where I will end up- but I can promise you that I have a future & a hope that will be radiating with God's glory (Jer.29:11).  If I would choose to live by what I can see - I would have little hope.  If I choose to listen to the world around me giving me excuses and rationalizations - I would have little hope.  Rationalizations are Satan's tool to prevent me from being repentant and obedient to God.  If I ever say a "yeah, but..." then I need to take a good, long, hard look at what I'm trying to justify; there is always a spirit of rebellion and sin underneath every "yeah, but..."  If I choose the way of sight - I lose.

When I choose to live by faith I will win.  That does not mean that everything will turn out exactly the way I want, in the timing that I want.  But God will be victorious not only in my life, but over the entire world and every person in it.  Faith allows me to have hope not in the people or things of this earth, but hope in the one, true, Almighty living God who reigns over all.  I have a new assurance of faith and hope.  No matter what, my life will go on because my life is based on living for the glory of God, not any man.  While I am continuing to pray without ceasing in this intense spiritual battle for the soul of the man I love, I will also continue to rejoice, and be gratefully content in where God has placed me in this season of life.  And I have faith that God will bless my obedience by filling me with his peace.  WHAT A SENSE OF FREEDOM!  I am stronger than ever before because "it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me" (Gal.2:20).

And you know what else - are you sitting down?  I can honestly say, while this year has been the hardest of my life - it has been the one I am most grateful for.  Am I happy with the sins being committed against me? Am I happy with the sins I have committed?  NO!  God tells us to hate sin!  But I am grateful that God has granted me - and Jon - the opportunity to have a marriage that before, we were not on the track to ever have.  We were missing out on the amazing gift of marriage the way that God had created it to be.  We would still be sitting in a mess and that would have been horrible.  So I am so glad that God has allowed this to enter into our lives because now, there is an opportunity for me and Jon to have a marriage that is founded on His word and brings Him glory.  And I pray that would be His will to grant us that very thing.  God brought Jon & I together for the purpose of bringing Him glory, and we were not doing that.  He shook us up!  And for that I say "Praise God!"  That does make this easy and that doesn't mean that Jon & I are not meant to be together.  In fact, through the marital covenant before Him, we were created specifically for each other alone.  May God be glorified in our marriage as it is now, and as it is in the future! God is good. God is faithful. God is mighty to save.  Nothing is too hard for Him. "But Jesus looked at them and said, With man this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible"  Matthew 19:26.  All glory be to God. May His glory shine for all to see.