Faith, Hope, and Money

            I think the words faith and hope are often used
interchangeably in our culture. “Have
faith that things will get better.” “Have faith that God will provide for your needs.” To me, those are examples of where the word
“hope” should be used instead. My team
leader, Aaron Darlington, and I were discussing this topic one night after a
team conference call and we agreed that faith is not the hoping for good things
to come. Rather, faith is obedience to
God – even when he makes difficult requests. 

            This
definition has two parts that need to be broken down. The first part consists of the examples of
faith defined in the Bible in this way. God promised Abraham descendants as numerous as the stars in the
sky. Then God asked Abraham to sacrifice
his only son, Isaac, through whom God’s promise would be fulfilled. Abraham obeyed by sacrificing Isaac in his
heart. Just pause for a minute. Can you imagine how hard that must have
been? Just think about God asking you to
sacrifice your only child. Just think
about that alone for now. Losing a
child. Your only child. That should be enough to make your heart
ache! Now, I don’t think any of us have
ever been promised to be the “Father of the world,” the head of the line would
eventually bear Jesus. But I think it’s
also safe to say that if we were promised that, and then subsequently asked to
sacrifice it, we would mourn a little extra for that, as well. Yet Abraham knew that God is always for and
not against him. He knew that “God’s
ways are not his ways,” and he trusted that God had a greater reason behind
it. In short, Abraham obeyed. THAT is faith, my friends. 

            The second
part of this definition of faith is the communication with God. Obeying God implies that you must first have
heard Him. Now I love music. I love movies. I love quality time with friends and family. I love nature and enjoying all of God’s
beautiful creation. I believe God
absolutely can speak through all these things and more. However, anyone who has ever played the
child’s game of “telephone” knows that second-hand messages can often be
distorted. Also, because you usually
choose the music you listen to, the movies you watch, and the people with whom
you surround yourself, the “messages” you receive from these things may perhaps
be, at least subconsciously, self-selected to meet your views and perspectives,
as opposed to hearing what God really is trying to tell you. So how do you “hear” God speak to you? My advice is that you take time to separate
yourself each day from all the “noise” in your life and spend more time
directly with Him through prayer and through reading His Word which he has
given us.

            The
prompting for this blog comes as I continue to fast from checking my support
account for the trip. From prayer time,
I believe with every fabric of my being that God instructed me in my heart to
refrain from checking my account – a request that is becoming more difficult
with each passing day. I had become
obsessed with it, checking multiple times a day to see if anything else had
come in. Back to my definition of faith,
I believe this is what God has told me and I believe I must be obedient even
though it is tough. This doesn’t
necessarily sit well with my parents, who have justification in claiming this move
irresponsible and illogical, or the staff at AIM who have to make sure we are
ready to go. To them, I simply ask for
your love, patience, and understanding. I know this isn’t easy. Believe
me.

            And to
everyone else, I ask for your help. I
know I still have money to raise and would love for you to partner with me in
this ministry. However, I have faith
that as I obey God, He will continue to provide. My real request at this point is for my
teammates. If you are reading this and
feel led to support my ministry further, I pray that you do so by supporting
them first. God has called us all to
spread His love to the nations, yet some still have quite a ways to go just to
meet the halfway mark which is required to get on that plane to leave the
country.  As Christians we are ONE body
of Christ. And as the eyes and arms have
different functions to accomplish a singular purpose, so too are those who send
us equally important to those of us who are sent.

Faith: God will
provide as I obey in his call to fast from checking my account

Hope: He will do so
quickly and fully.

Faith: My teammates
know God has called them to sacrifice a year of their lives to advance His
kingdom, even though they lack the resources to do so on their own