by Suellen | Successful Living, The Church Awakening
We know that we need to have faith in God to live our lives to the fullest. But how do we get it? Where does faith come from?
One day when my daughter, Leslie, was young, she came home from school very excited. As she slammed the door and threw down her books, Leslie told me that she had prayed with a friend to receive Jesus as Savior. She went on to say that she had asked Jack if he believed in his heart that Jesus was raised from the dead. He tensed every muscle in his body, scrunched up his face, held his breath, and gasped, “yes.”
Aren’t we like that? We feel as if we need to try harder to somehow conjure up the necessary faith. We strain harder, but it just doesn’t happen.
Well, there’s a reason that we can’t conjure it up. Faith doesn’t come that way. We can’t force ourselves to have great faith by tensing our bodies or holding our breath. Faith is a natural outgrowth of meditating on the word of God.
Romans 10:17 says “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.” So why two “hearings?” That word for hearing in the Greek is “rhema.” It refers to God speaking to you. In other words, when you read the Bible, God begins to speak to your heart. It’s truly a supernatural thing that happens. You read and meditate on the word of God and you begin to hear God speaking to you personally. As you hear that, you find yourself believing.
I believe that one of the greatest miracles in our world today is the Bible. God, over hundreds of years, spoke to men and gave them His wisdom. He laid down His plans and revealed His nature. Centuries before Jesus came to the earth, God spoke through Isaiah and others, telling of the sacrifice that Jesus would accomplish. At first people didn’t understand it, but later, when Jesus fulfilled the scripture, men were able to “get it.”
If you haven’t read your Bible much in awhile – or ever – I challenge you. Begin to read it on a regular basis. And don’t just read it. Find some scriptures which are especially speaking to you, and say them over to yourself throughout the day. Ponder them. Let them stay in the forefront of your mind. You will begin to believe what you are saying.
Just as the physical food you eat automatically becomes nutrition for your body, this spiritual food of God’s word will strengthen and develop your spirit and you will find yourself growing in spiritual strength. Your faith will grow by itself as you feed your spirit.
Life is truly an adventure when we nourish our spirits this way. God’s plan is such a great one, if we will just get in on it!
Forever Upward!
Suellen Estes
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by Suellen | Successful Living, The Church Awakening
Faith can seem like a strange thing. One day you can feel on top of the world. You are facing huge obstacles, yet you are trusting God and you know way down deep in that place that’s hard to describe, that you are going to come through this OK. In fact, you are quite sure that the obstacles are crumbling before you.
Then there are other days. (You know, one of “those” days). Just getting out of bed in the morning seems like a huge feat – and one that you might not be able to pull off!
So what happened? How can that be? One day you’re up; one day your’re down. One day you see yourself right up there with David …and Paul! The next day, you’re more like Demas, the loser.
Will you ever be consistent and not wavering? You begin to doubt your ability to walk with God in a reputable way. Can you truly be His person?
Yes, you can … and if you are asking the question, you are! You just have to understand the nature of faith and why it may seem elusive.
One way to grasp the right perspective would be to compare your spiritual strength to your natural strength. Life is fluid. Health is fluid. Strength is fluid. Strength of any kind is not like an object which you acquire and proudly display. It is part of your living being, and as in any part of life, there are efforts which are essential for success.
Consider an athlete – such as an NFL player. Can you imagine what would happen if he took his strength for granted? He wouldn’t be around very long. Even when he looks and acts like he has arrived at the zenith of physical perfection, he continues to work out and to practice. And, if he suffers an injury and has to sit out for awhile, his training increases to a new level upon his return. The athlete knows that his strength, endurance, and physical expertise are totally dependent on practice and training. He would never expect to maintain his desired level of achievement while in a total rest mode.
We need to take a lesson from the athletes. We need to honor the precious thing we call faith – our belief in God – our trust in His Word – and our zealous appropriation of all that He has for us. We must realize that it is a living thing. It grows or it diminishes. And a lot of the current status of this precious faith is dependent upon our current mindset.
The Bible says that “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” (Romans 10:9) The nutrition which feeds our faith is God’s Word, and if we aren’t nourishing our spirits with his rich food, our faith will be diminishing. Even if yesterday we considered ourselves spiritual giants, yesterday’s food will not keep us full of faith. It’s like the manna in the wilderness which became rancid on the next day. We need fresh food everyday.
Then in Jude 20, we see that faith is built up by praying in the spirit. So how is your daily prayer life? Do you check in with your spiritual headquarters every day, listening for direction, heeding His nudge, and listening for His voice of encouragement and affirmation? Do you speak His Word into the atmosphere around you, changing the fog of delusion into the clarity of His vision?
Remember, yesterday’s manna is rancid. Every day we start with a new need for our Father and His Word. Every day we have an opportunity to build on our strength of the past, or to allow that strength to recede. Staying the same is never an option.
My husband has led those in our church to say often, “I believe God.” You might think, well of course we do. But as you say those simple words, you will find your spirit leaping within you. A resounding, “yes!”
All of society around us needs us to truly be believers, strong in our understanding and faith. So let me encourage you. Believe God. Read His Word. Pray. Do those things which build up your faith, and those things which cause it to continue.
In other words, keep the faith!
Forever Upward,
Suellen Estes
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by Suellen | Successful Living, The Church Awakening
One of the blessings of fall, is to watch college football games. My husband and I sit there mesmerized as we watch the young, enthusiastic players pass, catch, kick, and run. Such energy! Such determination! Part of the excitement is that you never know who is going to win. State of mind and determination can sometimes override sheer size and talent. But not always.
Last Saturday we watched one of our favorite teams, Ole Miss, get defeated by Texas. It’s a building year for Ole Miss, and Texas seemed to be already built! There was an obvious difference in size and experience. But we were really proud of our team. Even though they had a chance to be discouraged, they never gave up. They even continued to squeeze in 31 points of their own. They had nothing to hang their heads about. They left the game, knowing they had done their best, and they would continue to build.
In the middle of the night, I awoke and felt that the Lord was talking to me. He said, “The church feels like Ole Miss felt. It seems that the state of affairs in our country – and with the church- is one of being out-sized and out-experienced when coming against the foolish and even evil forces in our world.” And you know that that is true if we are depending only on our strength.
The good news for us is that we don’t have to depend on our own strength. We can count on God and all of His forces to help us when we do things His way. Pray, stay focused, and continue to build.
Hebrews 6:11-12 says, “We desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”
So let’s remain diligent – or in some cases, get diligent. We can’t stop. We can’t give up. There may be forces coming against your personal life, but don’t let them cause you to give up. Refocus and face the giants again.
In many cases, we may think that we need to rebuild. Well, let’s do it! We rebuild our faith in God by meditating on His Word. We rebuild our faith in ourselves by prayer, listening to God, and, oh yes, by meditating on His Word. We rebuild our churches, our communities, and our world by prayer and sharing His Word.
We are in a big game! There may be giants facing us, but we can do this. Pray, focus, and build. Pray, focus, and build. Pray, focus, and build.
Let’s be not sluggish, but diligent, and see a turn around in our world.
Forever Upward!
Suellen Estes
