Who, what, where do you put your faith? How deep and strong is your faith? Have you exercised your faith recently? Do you know how to exercise your faith? Is your faith in the right person? Is your faith in God?
We all put our faith in someone or something. We have faith the sun will rise the next day. We have faith the people driving in traffic all around us will drive safely. We have faith Mom and Dad will always have our backs. We have faith there will be farmers to grow food. We have faith there will be jobs for us to earn a living.
Having faith in all of those people and things is all well and good, but our faith must ultimately boil down to one. We must either put our faith in ourselves or in God. When we put our faith in ourselves, we exercise our faith by approaching life as though it all depends on us. True, we contribute, but it doesn’t all depend on us.
When our faith is only in ourselves, we may be overconfident and cocky. Or we may be filled with anxiety and worry. We rely on our physical capabilities and those around us. We rely on manmade apparatuses to accomplish our tasks. We don’t look beyond ourselves.
When we exercise our faith in God, we ask for His guidance. We trust God to provide what we need, whether physical, emotional, or spiritual. We are confident God is working at all times and He cares for us. We refuse to put ourselves on a pedestal, rather we give the credit to God.
We have lost, to a large degree, our faith in God. Rarely will we see someone ask to be prayed over with the laying on of hands when they are sick. Rare is the person who sings praises to God as part of their daily lives. We often fail to repent of our sin, instead believing we really aren’t that bad because we compare ourselves to others. We have lost our belief in miracles. Oh, we may say God can work miracles, but we don’t really count on them. We have forgotten that God is bigger than any of our troubles, sicknesses, or failures. We forget that God created everything we see.
Prayer is the way to bring God into the equation. Prayer is the pathway to increasing our faith. Prayer is the means by which we praise God, ask Him to heal the hurting, and repent of our wrongdoings. Prayer is our ultimate communication mechanism with the Almighty.
I pray we all spend time with God in prayer. I pray we return to a faith in miracles. I pray each one of us brings God into the equation today and every day. Strengthen your faith. Spend time with God. Praise Him. Pray to Him. Communicate with God. Trust Him.
James 5:13-16 Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
Marty Pressey 