[this is a blog I initially wrote as a devotion for the blog on my church's website.]
[photo by Jolene My fellow California girl]
What would it look like if we actually trusted EVERYTHING God said. If we took everything that He told us and ran with it whether things He spoke to us through His word, through His followers or things He whispered into our ears.
How would that change how we lived our lives?
During a week of meetings in the picturesque Romanian town of Brasov I got my fifth tattoo.
It’s an infinity symbol, but the line through the middle reads, “give me faith”. All throughout the 4 months of my world race- throughout the busses in South America, the multiple international flights, the overnight sleeper trains in Europe, throughout our ministry, debriefings and every other moment the song“Give me Faith” has practically played on repeat in my brain.
Give me faith to trust what you say,
that you’re good and your love is great.
I’m broken inside, I give you my life.
I may be weak, your spirits strong in me, my flesh may fail,
My God you never will
Give me faith to trust that you say I can do this race for 7 more months.
Give me faith that I can move mountains in your name.
Give me faith that I can trust the truths others say about me.
My life is an endless loop of asking God to give me MORE faith.
Especially faith in trusting what He says.
It made me think of Noah and Mary. Two very different scenarios in the Bible where God said some pretty wacky things to His people.
To Noah: He said He wanted him to build an ark. Because He, God, was going to flood the earth.
I wonder how many times Noah had to defend himself to those around him. How many times he had to stand firm on the somewhat shaky ground he might have been standing on.
Did Noah ever ask God for faith to trust what He said?
And then of course there is Mary.
A sweet young girl who God tells she is going to give birth to His son.
9 months is a long time.
9 months is a long time to be stared at, sneered at, reprimanded, turned away from, and looked down upon.
In those moments of ridicule did Mary ask for a little more faith?
A little more faith to trust that all of this was true?
I don’t know what you are going through right now. I don’t know if you NEED more faith to trust the things that God is telling you and doing through you.
I know I do. As I sit curled up on a train bed watching the Romanian countryside whiz by me, I yearn for more faith.
I want more faith to trust what God tells me, and I want God to tell me MORE so I build upon that faith.
Don’t be afraid to ask for more faith.
It’s been my prayer on a loop. The more I’ve prayed it- the more I’ve trusted what God tells me about myself, believing the truths and stamping out the lies.
The more I’ve prayed it, the more God has given me to speak into others.And I know as I continue to pray it God will increase my faith in so many different ways.
And this I pray for you. That God would increase your faith, allowing you to trust the things He tells you and allowing you with that faith to move mountains. That God would increase your faith as a church that you would be a church that answers what God says and trusts what He says.
