We had a lesson on faith in the section called Foundations. We talked about having faith in the unchanging characteristics of God. I just wanted to share a couple of stories to spur you on to consider what a life of faith might look like. Here are two key verses for this subject.
2 Corinthians 5:7 (BSB) For we walk by faith, not by sight.
Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.
These two verses are saying the same thing. I’ll give you some examples from my life. There was a time we had no money left. At nine o’clock at night, we were faced with bills due the next day and no food for breakfast come morning. Relying on sight and our own understanding would have sent us into debt or begging family and friends for money. That didn’t happen. We trusted in the Lord and by faith believed that He was our provider. By ten o’clock that night, we had enough money for the whole next month. The bills were paid on time and we had a feast for breakfast.
When the doctor said my baby son couldn’t leave the hospital because he had no sucking reflex and needed to be fed by a tube, I didn’t accept what my eyes saw, that my son sucked on nothing. I took my son from his incubator and nursed him for half an hour and took him home. When the doctor said years later that my son needed hip surgery, I didn’t just take his word for it. He told us it was impossible for my son’s hips to improve in any way, only deteriorate. But I knew nothing was impossible for God. Both his hips reversed and he NEVER had the surgery.
When our banister fell down, I prayed and put it into the Lord’s hands to take care of. The handyman called us twenty minutes later asking if we had something for him to do. We did! Once, a telephone repair man showed up at our house out of the blue, just minutes after we realized there was a problem with the phone. At that time our internet was connected to the phone line, so it was a big deal to us to have it restored. We never called or reported anything. I asked the repairman why he was there. He was so confused. “Is your phone working?” “No.” It seemed obvious to him why he was there. The Lord put us on his work order for the day. We’ve had plumbing repaired by prayer alone as well. We had a dishwasher repaired by prayer alone!
We ran out of toilet paper one night when we were staying in a remote area, and the next morning woke up with a roll on the back of the toilet in each of the two bathrooms. We’ve had milk appear and even a fork when needed. When my daughter lost our only car key while she was out, I cried with a loud voice to the Lord for help instead of jumping into action to try and fix the situation, and the key quickly appeared in our little basket by the door.
My eleven-year-old daughter received a how-to-draw book from her aunt. She made amazing drawings the first day. I felt bad she had just needed to be shown. I prayed and asked the Lord how I could help her learn to paint, but I asked feeling like it wasn’t something I would be able to help her with. Very soon after we ran into a man on the street and struck up a conversation. He was a painter, a fine artist! He invited my daughter to take a free lesson. He saw her gift and asked us to bring her as often as we could. She spent about eight hours a week one on one with him, all for free, as he apprenticed her. At twelve, he was having her help with commissions and sharing the profit with her. It was an amazing gift from the Lord. Pray and ask the Lord for your felt needs. Believe that He cares and is able to help.
Faith is a gift from God. We don’t have great faith. We have a great God and we believe in Him! Our ATM card got eaten by a machine on the street in Istanbul, Turkey. There was no one to ask for help. That was our only ATM card and our only way to access our money which was in a bank in America. We had no money without that card. My husband got home and called our bank and the nice man said he would send it overnight. The next day it didn’t come. We thought it was because it was a holiday in Turkey, but it was important, so my husband called again to check on it. The person who answered said you have to physically come into the local branch back in America to get a new card. My husband explained he was told it would be shipped. He got passed to a manager who asked whom my husband had talked to, and then said no one by that name worked there. He checked the computer and sure enough the card had been sent. He was very upset, but we got our confirmation, and it did arrive the next day. Give your life to God. Let Him take care of you. Trust Him to be a ready helper. Have faith in your great God!
We can look to the Lord and be saved. He wants to save us. Without faith it is impossible to please God, which means God is pleased with faith. He wants us looking to Him. Make a habit of turning to prayer first when there is a problem, not seeking a solution, but seeking Him! I have a novel, The King Will Make a Way, that encourages the idea that we can look to Him to take care of our lives.
Lesson Point: We should be looking to God when there are troubles instead of seeking to save ourselves in our own understanding.
Challenge Question: Have you ever stood on faith and seen the miracle? Is there a problem now that you can take out of your hands and put in God’s hands?