Do YOu Value Action Over Faith?

REFERENCE: Psalms 147:10-11 He takes no pleasure in the strength of a horse or in human might. 11 No, the Lord’s delight is in those who fear him, those who put their hope in his unfailing love.

Observation: We have been trained to value action over being. We often feel like the more we do, the more valuable we will be to God, ourselves and others. We place our pleasure and our hope in our strength - our ability to get things done.

God’s way of looking at things is different. His loves it when we get to the end of what we can do and we are reduced to utter dependence on Him. For most of us, we hate that place! We want to feel strong and in charge. Yet, we can’t really learn to put our hope in Him as long as we are able to deal with life without His help.

God has a way of bringing us, regularly, to the end of ourselves, our own resources, and bringing us face to face with the question; "is your faith and trust going to be in me?" There is no chance to exercise faith and hope if there are not significant challenges in our lives. We need to welcome those times because they build our faith.

Remember that our hope is in His love. He really does care for us. That ought to make it easier to trust and believe.

Application/Confession: There are so many times when I am facing challenges that seem to be too big for me. I know that at those times God is pressing me towards faith. I know that He is faithful.

In my flesh, I don’t like to be there. In fact, I hate it. It makes me nervous. I want things to be smooth and predictable all the time. In my spirit I recognize that God is doing something great in me to work faith into my spirit. I will choose to cooperate with that process.

PRAYER: Dear Lord, I put my trust in your unfailing love. I know that You will provide for me and for the church I pastor because You are that kind of Father to me. Teach me to exercise faith and to live in it.