Where is Your Faith?

2 Corinthians 5:7
"We live by faith, not by sight."

I think far too often we miss out on God's goodness and blessings simply because we don't believe he can.  I myself have doubted some of the biggest movements of God in my life, and if I wouldn't have eventually taken the faith jump, I doubt I would be as close to God as I am.

People hate change, we hate our fears, and we hate stuff we can't understand.  

Ironically, that is everything God is.  He is constantly moving and active, ready to do the next big work in our lives (if we will let him.)  His name cancels out fear and so he lovingly desires to walk us through our fears to bring us closer to him and help us overcome fear with love.  And finally, his mysterious majesty is what makes him so beautiful, so powerful, and so wonderful to gaze upon.  Deuteronomy 29:29 says there are some things about God that we simply will never understand, and I think that's beautiful!  Wouldn't you be easily bored with a God you fully understand all the time?

The great thing about God is you will never figure him out, and you will eventually learn he has no set way of doing things.  Fallen humans and society give us rules, guidelines, and orderly social structures, not God.  God never said we have to do things exactly as our older siblings or best friends.  He never said life was going to be easy and without challenge.  Our God is not a boring God!

He begs us to close our eyes and blindly jump with him wherever he calls us.  He desperately longs to take us on the adventure of a lifetime!  In fact, that's what we agree to when we sign over our life to him through salvation.  Sadly, most of us quickly die out on all that crazy adventure stuff and settle for the much easier, less-risky, day-to-day routine that society and Satan are promoting.

Safe and predictable is fine, but that requires no risk, no heart, no vulnerability...No Faith.

If you are a Christian this should make you sick to your stomach.  Why?  Because you are missing the entire point of your salvation.  Salvation was never meant to be fire insurance.  It was always meant to be a commitment of laying down "me" and picking up the unknown adventure of faith, hope and love.

In America I think we have mastered the art of half-doing all of those, and faking that effort itself.  

"If the good Lord is willin' I'll get that new job I applied for!"  These words are often spoken, but is there any real risk in applying for that job, or was it something that person did for his own desires?  Did God boldly call this person to move from one job to the next, or are they tired of the people they are working with?  Has this person stopped to fall on their knees and seek God's will for them in the work place?  Or are they half-heartedly taking God into consideration.  Perhaps we shouldn't claim such things if our heart isn't 100% behind the statement.

I'm with C.B. Matthews on this one, American Christians have mastered the art of being fake, and it makes me sick to my stomach.  Not only am I sick for God, because he deserves much more than one tenth of our devotion, but I am sick for the fakers, because they think they are living a full life and they aren't.  They're safe and happy attending church once or twice a week, smiling and shaking hands with their neighbors and fellow citizens, but where's the Faith??

They don't even realize what kind of adventures they are missing out on by clinging to the idol of comfort and security.  God doesn't call us to that!  He calls us to "GO" and "WALK" and "DO" and "TRUST."  In fact, Bob Goff just wrote a book called "Love Does."  I love his tweets because they cut right to the point.  Faith without works is dead.

But wait, works without faith is dead too.