Faith Journey

I've been reading Reaching for the Invisible God: what can we expect to find? by Philip Yancey. The author states in chapter 6 "A record of God's faithfulness in the past combines with hope of a better future for one end: to equip us for the present."


Hebrews 11:1-2 The Message (MSG)
The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It's our handle on what we can't see. The act of faith is what distinguished our ancestors, set them above the crowd.


The writer of Hebrews then cites examples of faith through the history of God's people, concluding with verses 39-40 "Not one of these people, even though their lives of faith were exemplary, got their hands on what was promised. God had a better plan for us: that their faith and our faith would come together to make one completed whole, their lives of faith not complete apart from ours."


These verses are a reminder that my actions in the present (today) have the potential to become a part of the faith legacy of generations, but only if I place my complete trust in God and live my life on His terms. The difficulty is in the application of the concept.

For some things, the Bible speaks very clearly with regard to a specific course of action I am to take - I am to worship God only and love people. I don't have a problem loving people in general, but there are some specific persons who call themselves Christian that test me in the specifif call to patience and longsuffering. It takes an act of faith to deal with these folks as God would have me do, because I may never see any change in them - but maybe, it's me that God is trying to change!

When people I love experience pain, my natural reaction is to ask God to solve the problem for them. Sometimes He does, but many times the problem does not go away. "If only they could see - if only I could see - how differently God views the earth...God never commissioned us to remove all bad things from the world, to undo the Fall; God calls us to redeem the bad, transforming it into something good." (Reaching for the Invisible God: what can we expect to find? by Philip Yancey)