How To Overcome: Rising up in Faith

Faith. It is one of the most important aspects to our relationship with God and often times the most difficult challenge for us. Our society today is lacking in faith. We like to pick apart and analyze every little thing that goes on around us. However, being a Christian, you learn pretty quickly that you cannot understand everything. You learn that often times you need to just trust in God, as scary as that may be. You learn that you need to rely on His strength and His foreknowledge, and once you can do that, it really does produce an unshakeable faith.

But how exactly do we get faith? The verse that I always turn to comes from the book of Romans. It states:  “Now faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of God“(Rom 10:17). Two sure ways you can get faith is through reading your bible, and hearing God speak to you. And yes, God does speak to you. He is constantly speaking, we just have trouble hearing. But when you get to a place where you can hear Him speak to your heart, it produces tremendous faith(and hearing Him speak does not mean you have to audibly hear some loud, grand voice). The same thing goes for reading your Bible. There are numerous verses on comfort and compassion and anything you might need to hear when you are lacking in faith. You simply need to just open it.

Both hearing from God through the power of the Holy Spirit and reading the Bible are meant to edify and strengthen us. If you do not have an intimate, deep relationship with the Lord where you can really hear His voice, or if you do not read you bible, it will be hard to really rise up in faith.

Getting a little more personal here, I have been struggling with rising up in faith in a certain area in my life. I am graduating soon, and I often find myself fearing for the future. What will happen? Will I be sucessful? What if this happens? or What if I can’t do this? and so on. Questions like these have been filling my thoughts. Because I have placed my future fully in God’s hands, I find myself sometimes wanting to take it back and take matters into my own hands. I want to be able to understand and pick apart every little detail of it. But that is not okay.

I did recently find a place of repentence for it, but it definitely takes faith to walk out that repentence every day. The Lord has just be reasurring me recently that He loves me, and I have nothing to worry about. My future was decided and planned even before I was born. Why, then, should I fear for a second about it? I can honestly say that I am really beginning to rise up in faith and believe  that God has a wonderful purpose for me. I do not need to see it, or even fully understand it because it is in God’s control and that is all that matters. This new faith has given me so much hope and happiness when I think about my future. Here are some verses that have particularly spoken to me. I thought they might help those of you who may be in a similar situation.

“Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He will do it. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light as your judgement as the noonday. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him..” (Psalm 37:4-7)

“Those who love me, I will deliver; I will protect those who know my name. When they call to me, I will answer them; I will be with them in trouble, I will rescue them and honor them. With long life I will satisfy them, and show them My salvation” (Psalm 91:14-16)

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:5-6)

“Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and His understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint”(Isaiah 40:28-31)

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11)

“Do not worry, then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’. For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough troubles of its own” (Matthew 6:31-34)

“Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten in God’s sight. But even the hairs of your head are all counted. Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows” (Luke 12:6-7)

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28)

“Cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you. Discipline yourselves, keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour. Resist him, steadfast in your faith. . . . And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you” (1 Peter 5: 7-10)

God has an incredible future planned for all of us. It is one that is better than even we ourselves could have dreamed up. But the truth is, we cannot inherit this plan until we give up our own one’s to Him. When we decide to take control of our future, we in turn are denying God’s perfect plan. And who wants to do that? I know it can be hard surrendering something that is so valuable to you. I can say from experience that it is extremely tough. But the reward is a life full of happiness and joy.

And lastly, this has nothing to do with what I was just saying, but here is an awesome music video(well, the music video is okay, but the song is great). Whoever said all Christian music is boring was totally wrong and this song proves it:)

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