Exercising Faith Muscles

God is not raising up a remnant of doubters. He is raising up a remnant of faith leaners! The Bible book of Hebrews chapter 11 verse 6 says that "it is impossible to please God without faith". So God is not going to create us so that we can't grow in faith and intentionally doom us to not be able to please Him. He wants us to please Him because He delights in intimate relationship with us and so exercising our faith muscles is His path and plan for us in spiritual growth. In Christ, we are not destined to always be doubters, we are grown into women and men of faith, not because we're great, but because He is great! Buy the field....He really is that good!

I love this thought. God is not raising up a remnant of doubters, and of course we doubt along the way, but He is raising up a remnant of faith learners. So the obvious question is, "What is faith anyway"? I'm glad you asked!

In the Bible book of John chapter 4 from verses 46-53 we find a dad who is really concerned about the health and life of his son. He feels that his son is near death and he moves towards Jesus, BEGGING Him to please come and heal his son. Begging is not casual. Please come, please come, please come! You've got to come! Jesus simply tells the man to go his way, that his son will live. And I think a normal response to this would be "But Jesus, no, you see, you've got to come and see my son, touch my son and I've got to see you see my son and touch my son, you've got to!"

This is not what happens. What happens is faith muscles are exercised. In verse 50 we read that "The man took Jesus at His word and departed." Wow. The Dad lets go of the need for Jesus to do it the way he wanted Jesus to do it and he took Jesus at His word. You can go. Your boy will live. He believed that what Jesus said was true.

Do we believe what Jesus said is true? Not all the time. But we can grow and exercise our faith muscles. What area of life right now are you struggling to take Jesus at His word about? Where are you hesitant to believe that what God has said is true? Career? Marriage? Money? Conflict? Contentment? Your view of yourself?

Let's keep talking about our questions and our doubts. Let's talk about becoming faith learners. Let's exercise our faith muscles together! What are some areas of our faith muscles that we want to talk about and grow in as a family?

There's more.