Faith in Progress

Week of June 13

By Dr. Michael Youssef

Have you ever experienced a setback in your faith journey? We all experience failure and discouragement and spiritual stagnation at some point in our lives. We may feel shame or embarrassment over our weaknesses, but the Bible does not hide the failures of the faithful. We not only read about their great acts of faith, but we can also learn from their mistakes. We can find encouragement, knowing that the spiritual giants of the Bible were humans with faults and sins and disappointments; even in their weaknesses and amidst their failures, they continued to follow God in faith. Whatever setbacks we encounter on our faith walk, we can take heart that it is never too late to trust and obey God.

Abraham is a man known for his faith and his friendship with God. Read Hebrews 11:8-19. In this passage, the Bible mentions several great acts of faith by Abraham. "By faith Abraham…obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.…By faith he made his home in the promised land.…By faith Abraham, even though he was past age—and Sarah herself was barren—was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise.… By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice" (Hebrews 11: 8, 9, 11, 17).

Abraham sacrificed much in his obedience to God; yet the Scriptures also reveal his many missteps and detours along the way. The greatest lesson that we can learn from Abraham is that our faith is a journey. We cannot expect to be faith giants upon our first moment of salvation or without constant forward motion. Great faith requires time to develop trust in God and to develop a willingness to serve Him wholeheartedly. Great faith requires hard work and commitment to God. We must walk in obedience to God and follow where He leads. We need to maintain an active and fervent prayer life to know God's voice. We must daily study His Word to strengthen our faith in His promises.

Abraham's faith did not happen instantaneously; in his story we see a slow progression of faith with many setbacks. In Genesis 12, God called Abraham out of his pagan lifestyle and told him to move to Canaan. Abraham started the journey, but before he reached God's destination for him, Abraham settled along the way in Haran. Eventually Abraham arrived in Canaan, but as soon as things got tough during a famine, Abraham abandoned God's plan and left for Egypt. Then out of fear for his own life, he lied and allowed his wife Sarah to be taken into Pharaoh's household. In Genesis 16 and 17, Abraham followed Sarah's scheme to conceive a child instead of waiting upon God's promise. In Genesis 20 and 21, Abraham again lied to save himself while putting Sarah in harm's way. It took many years of faith development for Abraham to reach the point where he could trust God enough to be willing to sacrifice his own son.

When we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior, God calls us out of whatever pagan and sinful place we are living in and leads us in a walk with Him. Ideally, our journey to become more and more like Christ will remain straight and focused. However, for most of us, our journey will look more like Abraham's. We will stagnate in our spiritual growth and stop our journey at places that are comfortable and easy. We will run when God's calling becomes too difficult. We will compromise our beliefs and hurt people we love in order to save ourselves. We will face many opportunities to give in to temptations, pride, indifference, and stubbornness.

Abraham did not wallow in his failures or give up on his relationship with God—he always returned to the right path. As God continued to show Himself faithful, Abraham's trust in God grew. Abraham's faith development was a daily process, always learning how to trust God more and more. During the early years of his faith walk, Abraham did not even trust God for his daily bread during the famine. Yet years later, after learning lesson after lesson of how to trust in God, Abraham was willing to trust the very life of his precious and beloved son to Him.

Each one of us will experience failure and setbacks in life. We should never allow our failures to become excuses for giving up on God's plans or running from our relationship with God. Has your spiritual journey come to a halt? If so, seek God's forgiveness for your doubts or indifference or fears that keep you from following His plan for your life. Write down the obstacles that keep you from fully developing your faith, whether it is an old sin, doubt in God's promises, or anxiety over the future. Pray for God's strength to help you overcome those hurdles so that you can continue your faith journey.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rambabu – Testimony of Hindu Brahmin from Karnataka

Image
Rambabu – Testimony of Hindu Brahmin from Karnataka Rambabu comes from a very well educated orthodox Brahmin family. His father is a professor in English from a reputed College. His mother is also an English teacher. He has 2 siblings who are both lecturers in English. The family belongs to the highest Hindu caste of Brahmins. Since childhood Rambabu grew up listening to many mythological stories from his grandmother. She used to say that in olden days, it was known that because we cannot see God physically in the world, he has created Brahmans in the world. All the thousands of gods live in the Brahmins. Rambabu from his childhood would perform all religious duties in two different temples. He would pray and perform “puja” every morning and night. Rambabu knew all the religious traditions so well that other people would invite him to perform religious activities in their homes. He was such strict Brahmin that he would
Read more

Mahatma Gandhi admired Jesus and His teachings but did not follow "Christianity"

Image
As Gandhi famously said, “I like your Christ; I do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ.” See, that’s a problem. And it’s not that I expect Christians to be perfect. Far from it. But if we’re ever going to be justified in claiming Jesus as the model for our lives, it might help first if there was more of a resemblance. Mahatma Gandhi is one of the most respected leaders of modern history. A Hindu, Gandhi nevertheless admired Jesus and often quoted from the Sermon on the Mount. Once when the missionary E. Stanley Jones met with Gandhi he asked him, "Mr. Gandhi, though you quote the words of Christ often, why is that you appear to so adamantly reject becoming his follower?" Gandhi replied, "Oh, I don't reject your Christ. I love your Christ. It's just that so many of you Christians are so unlike your Christ." Apparently Gandhi's rejection of Christianity grew out of an incident that happened when he was a young man practi
Read more

The Law of Karma

Image
There is a lot of misunderstanding around this word. Karma simply means action. Every action has consequences. Conscious choice making is the most effective way of creating future consequences of karma. Karma creates the future, but it is also an echo from the past. Karma conditions our soul through memory, desire and imagination. Most people are prisoners of Karma, because it becomes a conditioned reflex and produces predictable outcomes in their lives. The goal of enlightenment is to break the in shackles of Karma. Every person is responsible for his or her acts and thoughts, so each person's karma is entirely his or her own. Occidentals see the operation of karma as fatalistic. But that is far from true since it is in the hands of an individual to shape his own future by schooling his present. Hindu philosophy, which believes in life after death, holds the doctrine that if the karma of an individual is good enough, the next birth will be rewarding, and if not, the
Read more