My faith shall be my eyes…

I’m listening  to thunderstorms rolling through Chelsea and thinking about all my friends in Southern Indiana. I read that Evansville is expected to get up to 6 inches of rain and that the city is making available sand and sandbags to those who might need it. “Officials say they’re hoping for the best but preparing for the worst.”

When I was a child, I attended Weekday Education classes and was even a member of their choir for a time. I remember a song called 100% chance of rain and a boy, who in the middle of the song said, “I believe it’s gonna rain!” The song was part of several that were about Noah, how he prepared for the flood and the days after.

The story of Noah has always fasinated me. Here is a man who is described as one who walked with God.  Before the flood, the ark, the rains…Noah walked with God. Before the crisis, before the excitement, there was a relationship.

He was also described as “blameless among the people of his time.” Noah was a righteous man. His relationship with God didn’t just happen. It was something he worked at.

I’ve heard it said that Faith is the hope for things unseen. But I like Wikipedia’s definition better. Faith is the confident belief or trust in the truth or trustworthiness of a person, concept or thing.

Do you notice the difference? Noah didn’t say to God, “Well, I hope you are right about this.” God spoke and Noah, having the confident belief and trust in the truth of God, went into action.

He could have argued with God. “Hey, why do I need a boat when the nearest water is hundreds of miles away?” “Rain?? What the heck is rain??” “Put animals on a boat?? With my wife??”

How many times, when God speaks to us and instructs us to do something, do we question him? Are we like Moses and try to blame a flaw of our own as a reason we shouldn’t be expected to do God’s will? Are we like Jonah, unhappy with our assignment and turn heal and run? Are we like Judas, busy with our own agenda, trying to work God’s plan into our own plan?

Faith. How is your? Is it firmly planted or like the house built on the sand; pretty to look at until the storms show up and wash it away.

 Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.” Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed from that moment  –Matthew 9:20-22

Jesus used the word faith as he talked to those around him, including his disciples. There were those, like the woman in the passage above, that he commended for their faith. There were those whom he chastised for their apparaent lack of faith.

He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”  –Mark 4:40

The thing about faith is, it’s easy to talk about, but it’s only through our actions that our faith is revealed. And its only through our relationship with God, spending time daily in His presence, that we can develop what was described in Wikipedia: Faith is the confident belief or trust in the truth or trustworthiness of a person, concept or thing.

Confident belief. Does that describe your faith? Christian artist Chris Tomlin wrote these words in his song I Will Rise:

There’s a day that’s drawing near
When this darkness breaks to light
And the shadows disappear
And my faith shall be my eyes

If you are struggling with your faith, take time to sit with God’s word, time to listen to God’s voice. If not, join with me in prayer today for all who struggle to believe without seeing, to trust in the truth.

Father, for all of those who are struggling to believe, I earnestly pray that their hearts may be jump at the sound of your voice, that they might recognize you for who you are, that they might believe in your everlasting truth and in doing so, find peace.