Faith

Okay, really, who flipped the switch and turned everything from right to wrong and vice versa?
I have spent WAY too much time lately just shaking my head ~ my constants and consistencies have been replaced with skepticism and apprehension. Truth be told, I’m mostly amazed at why I am taken by surprise. I do know we’re all sinners and yet I expected more…and still do.
It happens to the best of us; we sink into a comfortable little sanguine spot and before we know it, we get the soft (or maybe firm) reminder that even good intentions from well meaning people can shake our faith if we’ve got it misplaced!
 I’ve been down this road before and am a slow learner. Given that, God seems pretty intent on driving this lesson home for me. His message is two-fold and might have a ring of familiarity for more than just me.

1. God is in control. I am not.
2. Place your faith in Him and not in man. Man is fallible and errant.

I can’t repeatedly get angry because I am not privy to His plan. I know that I know that I know He has it all planned out but still I push, thinking my confidence in others will propel them. I do not have that ability and I certainly don’t shoulder that responsibility.  My faith was shaken but that’s because it was erroneously placed. Who hasn’t been let down by someone? Surely I’ve let people down, too.
Matthew 17:20 reads

I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

So what do we do when it all feels futile? Does that mean we’ve lost our faith? Well, I think it means we start back at square one by placing our faith on only Him. When I was a brand new Christian and would hear the message of our God being a jealous God, the emotion I equated to jealousy seemed like an insecure reaction from the Creator of all things.  Now I know that God covets a relationship with us and when our faith lies elsewhere, he will remind us that only He is worthy of that.

God is good all of the time. And we just can’t measure up to that…why then do we expect others to?

So as I journey through this disappointment and this severed relationship, I will hold on to this verse from Jeremiah.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Replenish my hope, Lord, and replenish my faith.    AMEN