He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him? Luke 8:25, (ESV), italics and bold mine.
Ever lost your confidence in Christ—in His love, His power and promises—during a severe storm of life? Ever felt disoriented and you couldn’t figure out solutions? Instead you felt suffocated from the drowning waves of a bad storm that relentlessly came at you.
We know crisis can come at any time. So we stay alert and watch carefully. Sometimes things seem pretty calm and then wham! You decide to go to the doctor and she finds a lump in your breast. Or you come home from the grocery store to find your husband sitting at the table and he tells you, “I just lost my job.”
These inevitable storms oftentimes linger for what seems forever. The massive waves of helplessness will eventually hit us hard. We feel at risk and we doubt God’s goodness. We may even feel God has left us to fend for ourselves, just like the disciples in Luke 8.
Scripture says, “…and as they sailed he [Jesus] fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake and they were filling with water and were in danger. And they [the disciples] went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” (Luke 8:23–24a, ESV). Ever yelled at God, I’m perishing! Me too!
So what can we do when difficult times come? What do we hold onto when God’s promises seem so far away especially when the storm lingers? Where is your faith during difficult times? Remember:
Our faith stands in the grace of God who took care of the biggest problem in our life. He took care of our sin. He became a man, died for us and rose again (1 Cor. 15:1–5, Rom. 5:1–2).
Our faith endures on forgiveness. The very essence of our faith anchors itself on forgiveness. No matter what our storm of life brings us we need to depend on God’s forgiveness and we need to extend forgiveness to those who hurt us (Mark 11:22–26, Col. 3:13, Eph. 4:31–32).
Our faith abides in God’s everlasting love He has demonstrated to us over and over again (John 3:16; Gal. 2:20). The Psalmist writes, “I cried out, ‘I am slipping!’ but your unfailing love O LORD supported me. When doubts filled my mind your comfort gave me renewed hope and cheer " (Psalm 94:18–19, NLT).
Our faith rests securely in knowing God keeps us safe under the shadow of His wings (Ps. 17:6–9; 46:1, Rom. 8:35–39, Phil. 1:6, Heb. 13:5–6).
Our faith grows when we believe God in all of our circumstances. We know He will take care of us during the dark hours of the storm and when it ends. Our faith in God will convert sorrow into joy when we see He had purpose for our suffering (Rom. 8:28, 1 Pet. 1:6–9).
When the storms of life hit they almost always appear stronger to us than God’s word. They come and we panic. Instead we need to ask the important question at the moment of hard; where is my faith? Who will anchor my soul and my life? Who will help me?
This blog post originally appeared at www.sacredstoryministries.org
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stevejamieson
Faith on God
Faith is the word that defines everything; we used to do faith on different people, different situation and different things. But apart from that we start doing faith on god also; people those are completely believe in god and religion are always having different types of faith on god that god will helps us in difficult times. This faith will bring positive changes in our behavior and gives courage to deal with situations.
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