HAVE FAITH IN GOD'S FAITHFULNESS

Faith begins with a total abandonment of oneself into God’s care, but our faith must be active, not passive.

We must have full confidence that God can and will do the impossible. Jesus said, “With God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26). “With God nothing shall be impossible” (Luke 1:37). In short, faith says, “God is enough!”

The Lord was making Abram a man of faith by leading him into an impossible situation. He wanted to hear his servant say, “Father, you led me here, and you know best. So I’m going to stand still and believe you to do the impossible. I’ll put my life in your hands, fully trusting that you won’t allow me or my family to starve. I know we’ll be preserved because you promised I would have a seed!”

Our faith is not meant to get us out of a hard place or change our painful condition. Rather, it is meant to reveal God’s faithfulness to us in the midst of our dire situation. God does at times change our trying
circumstances. But more often, he doesn’t - because he wants to change us!

We simply can’t trust God’s power fully until we experience it in the midst of our crisis. This was the case with the three Hebrew children. They saw Christ only when they were in the midst of the fiery furnace. And Daniel experienced God’s power and grace when he was thrust into the lions’ den. If they had suddenly been pulled out of their circumstances, they never would have known the full grace of God’s miracle-working power. And the Lord would not have been magnified before the ungodly.

We think we’re witnessing great miracles whenever God ends our storms and crises. But we can easily miss the lesson of faith in such times — the lesson that says God will remain faithful to us through our hard times. He wants to raise us above our trials through faith, so we can say, “My God can do the impossible. He’s a deliverer, and he’s going to see me through.”