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Faith

                 Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. (Psalm 27:14)

                He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm. (Matthew 8:26)

                One way you might get a clue that God is trying to teach you something is to find yourself receiving the same message from different sources, at different times, and in different ways. Over the past several days, I’ve started a book that talks about trusting yourself and trusting your audience. The past couple of days of verses of the day on BibleGateway.com seem to me to focus on trusting God. It’s a recurring theme in my life, and a recurring theme in Scripture. The second verse above may be the most famous of Jesus’s comments about insufficient faith.

                A big part of faith, trust, and belief (all basically the same idea) is that the times when we get instant and dramatic answers are fewer and farther between. Times when we have to keep faith, trust, or belief over time are more common.  If you read Hebrews 11, the people who were most commended for their faith were the people who didn’t see what they wanted in their lifetimes. Let’s think about that. No doubt, they were like us in that they weren’t passive about their wishes. But at the same time, they were willing and able to look forward to them or look at them from a distance without saying, “Chuck this,” and either giving up on their dream or giving up on God. They may have complained to God – even regularly – but it’s sort of like nagging a husband about doing the task he promised to do six months ago without filing for divorce, and without gossiping about his incompetence or uncooperativeness on Facebook.

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