Faith

"Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us ASSURANCE about things we cannot see. Through their faith, the people in the days of old earned a good reputation."
Hebrews 11:1-2 (NLT)

God has been challenging me on quite frequently lately....do you trust me...no no no I mean daughter do you REALLY trust me? It's a tough question....the simple answer is yes and most of the time we (myself included would say yes), but when you get down to it do we really trust Him with everything, the big and the small? Do we have faith to believe God will come through in every situation?
I would love to sit here and say yeah I do in every situation and at every moment have faith and trust the Lord with everything, but being honest that's not how it is all the time...we're all human and we all have weak moments....thank the Lord He gives us grace, and more than that He teaches us about these different principles...so for me in these past five months and especially right now God is giving me a lesson on faith.

I've read Hebrews 11 a number of times (and if you haven't read it, it's a great passage about faith) and it always blows my mind about how much faith the people in the old testament had. I mean flip (just to name a few) look at Abraham and Isaac, Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God asked him to, even though God had told Abraham that "Isaac is the son whom all your descendants will be counted." Abraham had so much faith to believe that God is in control and He does know best and even though God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son Abraham still believed in who God was that out of this God would have a plan and He would bring understanding because Abraham knew the character and nature of God and that is that He is good all the time. That's pretty crazy this man was willing to sacrifice his son and just walk in obedience and trust the Lord with everything.
And then you've got this man Enoch who "was taken up to heaven without dying" (11:5) "he disappeared because God took him" (Reference:Genesis 5:24) like oh my goodness THATS INSANE! God took him from this earth before he had passed away. I don't know about you, but I think that's pretty awesome. The second half of verse five and then on through six says: "For before he (Enoch) was taken up, he was known as a person who pleased God. And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him."
For me this verse is challenging. Because when we come before the Lord with a clean heart, it gives so much way and so much room to the Holy Spirit to do amazing things within us and around us, but then what God has said to me before and I feel like he's kind of reiterating now is that it's great and powerful to confess and come before me (God) with a clean heart, but if you doubt and you don't have faith in who I am and what I can/will do that's quenching the power of the Holy Spirit and is quenching me from moving in, through, and around you.
So for me this challenges me because I believe that God exists and I believe he "rewards those who sincerely seek him", but I still doubt and let me be honest....it's really annoying, because God has proven Himself so faithful to me (and if you look at your life to you as well) so many stinking times. He's always there, He never leaves us nor forsakes us. He's a good God. He loves his children, He sent his only son who died, rose, and is coming again and He did it for us...for his children. He's the Alpha and Omega, beginning and end, He's our Jehovah Jirah (provider), like the list could go on for a while....but you get the point we serve an amazing God.... and nothing is impossible for Him.
Whatever our life situations are right now, whether it's needing finances, wanting healing for something, brokenness in relationships, an illness, etc....I want to tell you today GOD IS FAITHFUL and I want to challenge you (and myself included in this) to wake up every morning with that in mind and let faith rise up in you and dare to believe that God will come through in every situation big or small. Blessings!