Living Faithfully
"By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. By faith Abraham, even though he was past age--and Sarah herself was barren--was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise. And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore."
~~ -Hebrews 11:8-12
When we think of how to live a life by God's will and in a way that would be pleasing to Him, what do we think about? Does God look for physical things? Will God bless you more because you have achieved something great or amazing?
|PIC1|We all want to live in a way that will please God and which will result in us receiving more and greater blessings. So how can we do this?
We have to realise what God wants from us. God always wants to bless us, but so many times we keep ourselves from receiving these blessings. We do not have the faith that God will actually grant us what we ask for in our prayers.
What God wants from us is faith. The faith shown by Abraham - the faith of believing in the absolute providence of God, and that in Him anything can be achieved or given. No matter how difficult or impossible the thing you ask for may be, can God, the creator of all things pure and good, not grant you these things? How much do you believe in the providence of God? Truly believe?
We have to pray and pray always. No matter how long it takes. Usually we pray intensely for something we want God to give us maybe for a day, a week, even a month. But then we lose hope and forget - we have a lack of faith. God will answer all our prayers in His perfect time. Sometimes we will even receive blessings that we prayed for so long ago that we forgot that we had even prayed for it.
But faith can go even deeper than this. What if God does not fulfil your prayer within a time pleasing to you? Will you turn away? Will you forget? Absolute faith - beautiful faith is going beyond just believing in the existence of God. Going beyond believing that your prayer will be answered. True beautiful faith is having the faith that even if you cannot see why things are happening right now - it is having the faith to believe that God has a great and wonderful plan. His ways are higher than our ways.
He will make all things beautiful in His time! Even if you are suffering now, if you keep this absolute faith through all of your hardships, will God not bless you in ways that we cannot even fathom? He will take us to a place greater than we can even expect.
Abraham, by faith followed the word of God, and left everything even though he did not even know where he was going. He kept faith in a seemingly impossible situation, and was blessed abundantly because he had the faith in the absolute providence and faithfulness of God.
God is faithful, and he wants us to be faithful too. Through one man's faith came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.
