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FAITH |
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Written by JoDee
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Sunday, 04 March 2007 |
A man once did a tight rope walk across Niagara Falls as many watched and marveled over how dangerous and unbelievable this attempt was going to be. He yelled out to his audience, “Do you believe in me!?” Everyone of course was yelling back, “Yeah!”. They watched him as he carefully placed one foot in front of the other with nothing but a small piece of rope between him and an empty pit. As he made his last step to safety, everyone started cheering in disbelief that he actually made it across.
He asked them again if they still believed in him, and everyone was cheering so he called out one of the near by-standers to come next to him.
The tight rope walker asked this by-stander again if he really believed in him and he said, “Of course I do. I just watched you do it.”
“Great!” the rope walker replied, “now go ahead and get on my back so we can go back across.”
The man backed up and said, “What!? You want me to get on your back? No way!”
I remember hearing this story in church, and it has always stuck out in my mind about what true faith is like. We have seen and heard all these amazing and wonderful things that God has done, but when it comes to us trusting Him with our own lives, we are so hesitant. I get so angry at myself for allowing FEAR to rule my thoughts and decisions instead of God. Fear keeps us from His very best for us, and I can recall in my own life times that I didn’t let fear get in the way, that God blessed me in HUGE ways. So why is it that I can go back to doubting Him so easily?It’s because we get caught up in the physical realm of life, I believe. We want to be able to see and know everything so we can trust it, but God asks us to do something different. I think of Noah when he was asked to build the Ark. He must have felt so silly spending all this time building this massive boat when there wasn’t even a drop of rain around.Almost everyone thought he was crazy. However, He trusted and had faith in what God was asking him to do no matter how crazy it felt. When Peter stepped out of the boat into the raging stormy sea, he didn’t look at the raging waves next to him, but he kept his eyes fixed on Jesus. He knew that if he took his eyes off, that fear would have overwhelmed him. God is desiring, craving, and searching for those of us who will lay ourselves down and allow Him to take us on an amazing and unbelievable journey with Him! However, without faith, our deeds are considered worthless in the Bible. God wants people of faith. He says in James 1:6 that a doubtful mind is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. I don’t want to be like that! I want to experience every blessing that he has in store for me so that I may know Him with my whole heart and experience His joy. My prayer is that we would allow God to grow us in our faith today. May we trust Him enough to get on His back. even if everything in our circumstances looks scary. Satan wants us to be distracted by the pit below us, or the waves around us, but God wants us to keep our eyes on Him. We have his promise that he is with us always and that He will provide our every need. May we not wake up in fear another day, but in faith.
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