Faith

Faith is a beautiful thing.  Faith must be in the Lord alone, however.  Faith in anything else in this world will always fail us.  Faith in the Lord is the only true source of stability, hope, purpose, and refuge when life's difficult moments occur.  Faith in the Lord helps us face the realities of life when they become overwhelming.  In fact, faith demands that we face reality with its challenges both difficult and exciting.  We need to in faith pray to the Lord to help us accomplish this.

How do we hold on to faith when we feel overwhelmed by the problems all over the world and by the problems we see in our own lives and in the lives of those we love?  I have a sister who has been fighting serious cancer for about two years now.  My husband's sister-in-law just passed away from cancer.  Other family members in both Bob and my families are going through struggles as well.  Bob himself was and is on antibiotics.  How does one hold on to faith in the struggles of life?  

The answer is that we trust the Lord.  We know that He is in control.  We trust that He provides joy and strength even in the most difficult of situations.  We trust that His love for us is unending and limitless.  We trust that He will never forsake us.  We also trust that He will guide us through this life step by step and in the end take us to be with Him.

Also when we slow down enough in our hurrying and scurrying through life to recognize our many blessings and to recognize the goodness of God through it all, we grow in our faith and love for Him.  We then see how many prayers God has answered in our lives.  We recognize His daily provision and protection for us.  Then gratitude and joy follows replacing all the negative emotions.  Yes, sad emotions and lamenting are still often there, but our perspective changes.  It become an eternal and faith-filled perspective.

It is difficult at times to maintain that faith in the face of obstacles and heartaches.  Only the Lord can give us the faith we so desperately need.  Yet prayer, reading God's Word, and worship paves the way to this kind of abundant faith-filled life.  It is the means the Lord uses to guide us and walk with us throughout life and into Eternity.  There is no better friend then Him.