Faith

After posting the song yesterday "What Faith Can Do" by Kutlass, it made me just really start thinking about one thing... FAITH. 

What is faith? 

"Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see" (Hebrews 11:1) 

Faith is not something we do, it's not something we can see, it's a belief and a confidence. It's knowing that even when things are impossible that God can still succeed. It's knowing that when something seems so far away, God can bring it closer. It's knowing the when a mountain looks much too high to climb over, God will lift us over. 

There are a number of stories of great faith in the Bible, both in the new and old testament. In Luke 8 we read about a sick woman. "And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her. She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped. "Who touched me?" Jesus asked. When they all denied it, Peter said, "Master, the people are crowding and pressing agains you." But Jesus said, "Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me." Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. Then he said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace."" (Luke 8:43-49)

This woman took a leap of faith. She had been unwell for many years, she shouldn't have been amongst the people and could have faced great punishment. However, she had faith and she believed that although no one else could heal her, although there was nothing she could possibly do to help herself, Jesus would be able to help her. She had such a faith that she pushed all doubt aside and just went for it. 

I often find myself asking, do I have that type of faith? I think it's something that I am continually working on. There are times where faith has played a big part in choices I've made and things that I've done, but then there are times where I have walked away unsure that I could succeed even though God would have helped me through. 

I don't think that once we've got faith that we can never lose it. We always need to exercising our faith. I wish I knew how to do this simply, but it's difficult to really put in words for me at the moment. How do we exercise our faith? I guess part of it is obedience. If God speaks to us, we need to be obedient, we can exercise our faith in knowing that God has asked us to do something, and no matter how crazy or impossible it seems, He will help us through it.

  

^{Thankful for: Joy}

^{Joy is such a great thing in our lives. I've had an interesting day today, I found out recently that one of my closest friends is moving away. She's done so much for me in the past 5 years, it's going to be sad to see her go. I spent time today in tears just thinking about it, and I realise, I'm not crying because I'm sad to see her go. I was crying because she brought so much joy to my life that I am just so thankful for. God had filled her with such joy that just overflowed into my own life and I'll always be thankful for that.}