Where Is Your Faith?

It is very easy, when things are going good in my life, for me to say that I would live by faith if things were to start getting harder in my life. Filled with my over-sized sense of piety I watch others who are going through rough times and think to myself that, were it me having the troubles, I would be doing what the bible says and simply trusting in God (notice how full of pride and judgement I am, we'll have to save that for a future blog post). Yep, there I sit, covered with my pride and content that my faith must be deeper than that of those struggling around me. I start congratulating myself and then it happens...

something goes wrong...

not even a big something...

and I flip out in the most spectacular way...

All of a sudden I am faced with a slight hiccup to the plans that I have for my life (see how I am focused on my plans instead of God's plans...another future blog post in the making) and I forget all of that "faith" stuff. 

In Luke 8:25, after the disciples watch Jesus do amazing things they get into a boat with Him. When the waters start to toss them around and upset the boat they go to the Lord in a panic. Jesus, in response, asks them a very basic question: where is your faith? He then calms the waters and they are left astounded by Him. Inevitably that is what happens in my life: something upsets my boat and, instead of trusting that God will see me through the storm, I go to Him in panicked prayer. There is nothing wrong with praying when life's struggles come at you, but I would rather do it with a heart full of trust and faith. 

I can find all sorts of excuses for my behavior if I want to, I guess: girl-hormones, OCD, bipolar, or simply my instinct to plan being thwarted. Maybe some of those things play a role, maybe not. Focusing on human excuses will get me nowhere so instead I am going to focus on a God-centered solution. After taking time to think and pray I can only see one sure-fired way to help me avoid that happening again and that is to become so grounded in the Word and prayer that it becomes instinctive to lean on Him before I freak.

I want to seek out a way to make faith such a habit that my brain will automatically override the panic that hits when life goes kaboom. It is a lofty goal, I know, but one that I think is worth working towards. So then I tried to decide the best way to make faith my first reaction to struggles and troubles and I found myself quoting my pastor's wife: stay in the Word. Such a simple answer for such a spectacular meltdown issue. It will take time, but I can't think of a better way to spend the time that God gives me. So that is my goal: to fill me head and heart with so much of God's Word and will that I don't blink when troubles happen. Instead I will bow my head and simply say "Thy will be done". 

Thanks for reading and I hope that you have a great weekend!