Can we all just be honest for a moment? Having faith in God can be difficult when Life is hard. Our prayers don’t always get answered when and where we want them to.
Sadly our faith in God is directly related to the amount of money we have in the bank, the state of our health, or the number of good opportunities before us.
But the security these circumstances can offer us is flawed. Even on their best days, they become a shaky foundation that blocks our faith in God from transferring to God working mightily in our lives.
It is our faith that is the currency that God uses to turn our heartaches into hallelujahs. That is actually the best news ever. It means we don’t have to be rich in money and have everything we need in life.
We all can come to the point that we have that life-transforming faith in God. we can have faith in spite of when life knocks us down. Faith that when we are knocked down God will bring us through to the other side.
So if your faith is being strained by life read on to discover God is for you. That when you boost your faith in God you boost the number of times you see God give you your miracle.
Take your faith in God back to the GREENHOUSE
If you have ever been around a plant nursery or anybody big into gardening you usually notice a special building. This building is a greenhouse.
It is to provide a climate-controlled space for delicate plants to give them a strong start. So that when planted they will be ready for the elements. Our faith started out strong in the same respect.
But as we have all found out life isn’t kind to our faith in God sometimes. so what is the solution? Just as plants need a controlled environment to get a good start we have to create an environment that feeds our failing faith. So how do you have faith in God when life has knocked you down?
We rekindle our faith by remembering the times that God responded to our faith in Him. By revisiting all the times that He showed himself to be faithful. No matter how impossible the situation appeared.
As we remember the miracle of how God saved us, how he miraculously healed us and provided a huge need our faith gets stronger. The more we focus on what God has done the more we believe that God is going to do.
The more we focus on what God has done the more we believe that God is going to do.
The Thank you before He blesses you
When you think about what is classified as a great act of faith there are certain events you remember. What Jesus did in John 6:11 absolutely required His faith to be in tip-top shape.
But let’s look at the reality of Jesus’ situation. Here he is in the middle of nowhere with five thousand hungry people. All He has to work with is five loaves and two fish. Even a kindergarten student knows that the math doesn’t work out. But Jesus does something unexpected.
Jesus doesn’t question if God will come through. But acts as if He has enough food to feed the entire multitude. He simply took the loaves, gave thanks, and gave it to those who were seated. Jesus thanked God because He knew that being unthankful for what God had provided would have caused Him to question God’s ability to follow through. Isn’t it amazing Jesus did not even complain?
There is a lesson for us in Jesus’ response to His impossible situation. The lesson being no matter how inadequate we feel we are to deal with our circumstances there is hope. But if we complain, tell ourselves all the ways it doesn’t work, and give God a lecture for what he hasn’t done then we are guaranteed to miss our miracle.
The reason being that faith in itself does nothing for us. It is the object of our faith that brings transformation. And oftentimes when God saves the day we falsely allow the avenue through which He saved the day to become the object of our faith. Then when that object is threatened our faith falls to pieces.
So when we thank God for what we are asking Him to do. It is like a tangible statement of faith that we believe He will do something. God’s gifts often arrive on the wings of our grateful hearts.
It is this thankfulness that also forces us to recognize that God is the one behind the miracle. And He is the reason for the transformation.
God's gifts often arrive on the wings of our grateful hearts.
Build a runway for your faith in God
When life has knocked us down and our faith is struggling we have to take action. It is not going to get better without us being proactive. Saint Augustine said ” Pray as everything depends on God. Work as though everything depended on you.”
James spoke about the relationship between our faith and works in James 2:17. James boldly claims that faith without works is useless. What this doesn’t mean is that we do all the work and God is just an afterthought. But instead, the one complements the other.
It is very similar to the experience of flying. In order to fly, you can’t just have an airplane. The airplane needs a runway to get in the air without crashing.
So some of us understand the praying part and the faith part. But we forget to prepare the runway for what God is about to do in our lives. So when life knocks us down we have to start making room for God to work. What does that look like?
That means we make room in our life for the miracle that we are asking for. We invest money, time, and effort getting ready for what we are believing God is going to do.