source: http://danielstinson.theworldrace.org/?filename=lets-see-the-power-of-prayer
Announcements:
1) Beware of Christians - Event Showing in West Lafayette on April 24, 2012. (You do not want to miss this. Join the facebook group if you can make it: http://www.facebook.com/events/167040963409647/)
2) www.mywhiteflag.com (coming soon! promise)
Hey all! How have the past few weeks been? It has been a really busy couple of weeks, but God has been at work and He has been moving so much! I really want to encourage each and every one of you to continue to look for God in the everyday because He is definitely working and making Himself known to us each and every day. We just don't hear or see it because our hearts have become calloused and we have become accustomed to the pattern of this world (Acts 28:27, Romans 12:2)This won't be a super long blog post, but I just wanted to take the opportunity tonight to talk about some thoughts that have been on my mind that relate to faith, and more specifically faith leading to action. So let's move to the deep end of the pool because we're about to dive in!
What is faith? What does faith look like in your individual life? What are the ways that you are living by faith, and are there examples in your life where you are completely relying on God? Pause for a second and take some time to answer these questions for yourself. Multiple verses throughout scripture call us to "always be ready to give an answer to the reason why we have hope" or faith (1st Peter 3:15, Colossians 4:6). Have an answer for what faith looks like in your life. You never know when God may call you to tell someone about your faith.
I received a text message the other night that said, "What if we sought God and believed in Him with 100% of who we are." And then it hit me: What if we had 100% faith? The bible clearly says with a tiny faith, we can move mountains. We are so good at allocating our faith to different things. In so many situations, we allow God to have most of the control, but very rarely do we find ourselves in a circumstance where we have to COMPLETELY rely on God for who He is. But God is greater than our circumstances. He is greater than death, temptation, sin, time, human wisdom, success, failure, happiness, and infinitely more. He is supreme in everything. What keeps us back from having complete faith? Here are a few things:
1) Comfort
We live comfortably. Complete faith in God is something that we don't think as comfortable. By human standards, it's not. But I think that if we allowed God to provide for us all that He promises, we would find that we couldn't ever imagine being more comfortable and peaceful than we are when He is holding us in His mighty hands.
2) Fear
We are afraid of the unknown. We are afraid of risk and of possibilites. But this fear is just a lack of faith in God. If we truly believe that God is who He says He is, the only thing we should ever be afraid of is living an insignificant live for His kingdom. He is provident over everything. 1st Corinthians 3:21-22 puts this in a great perspective:
"So then, no more boasting about human leaders! All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future -- all are yours, and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God."
We are of Christ, and Christ is of God. We have no reason to be afraid.
3) Self
Since we are young, we are taught to fend for ourselves. We are taught that we are strong enough, smart enough, to be able to handle things on our own. Ephesians 2 says that "you were once dead." The meaning of us being dead is that we cannot do anything on our own strength. We must die to ourselves, and allow Christ to live in us. That is when we discover true strength.
So how does 100% faith lead to action. My roommate and I have a whiteboard in our room (ya it's a pretty sweet set up) and we put verses up that stick out to us. Two verses are currently up on the board that talk exactly about how faith leads to action. 1st Corinthians 4:20 and Proverbs 14:23. Those are as follows, respectively:
"For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of Power."
"All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty."
With a faith that is 100% in Christ Jesus, we cannot help but act. The true Kingdom as stated in 1st Corinthians is a matter of power and not just talk. Sometimes our action leads to faith, as we step out in faith to something unknown. What I do know for sure is that when we have a faith that can move the mountains, we ARE going to move mountains because that is what Christ has intended for each of us.
Thanks for stopping by and checking out "This Guy Over Here." As you saw, I added an announcement section to the top of the blog. Be sure that you read those and took note of them! I'd like to start blogging more again, so if you have any ideas about what you want to see in a blogpost, leave it in the comments below or email me at jdaghe@gmail.com!
They'll Know We Are Christians By Our Love,
Signing off,
JD
