I don’t feel so righteous right now as my faith wavers. I know we serve a good God who can do the impossible. But when His ways make no sense, then having faith in Him becomes difficult. His ways are definitely not my ways, and His thoughts are not my thoughts. I cannot lean on my own understanding. The truth is a lot of times I do not understand what God is doing, and I am beginning to realize that His ways are not for me to understand, even though I want to. I just need to trust Him when what He does doesn’t make sense. I only need to walk by faith and not by sight.
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men of old gained approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible. Hebrews 11:1-3
It is very difficult for me to have faith when everything in the natural looks opposite of what I am believing God for. When hopelessness abounds, I lack faith. Look around. What do you see? Do you see what I see? Innocent children caught in sinful wars, deaths rise as planes fall from the skies, destitution jumps as inflation soars, fires snuff out livelihoods and lives, among so much more.
Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord— for we walk by faith, not by sight— we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. 2 Corinthians 5:6-10
When we are too at home in the body all that is happening around us will affect us a lot and we will worry when we see that things are going badly. But we will have courage when we have faith in the Lord knowing our home is not here but is with the Lord. We won’t be so concerned about material things and our reputation. All of that is of the world. We are to be people of no reputation like Christ. We should never worry about what we eat or what we wear as we know God will provide. And I am going to state something that many folks may think is crazy. You don’t have to worry about planning too much because tomorrow will take care of itself. It is difficult not to plan. Nevertheless, it seems every time I make a plan it doesn’t work out as I may be doing it in my own strength. I have been learning with all the uncertainty around me that God has a plan for me and He will accomplish it and I can rest in that.
The LORD will accomplish what concerns me; Your lovingkindness, O LORD, is everlasting; Do not forsake the works of Your hands. Psalm 138:8
I can be assured that God will do what He says because He is not a man that He should lie. He keeps His promises. What He said He will accomplish, He will do it no matter what everything looks like. Jesus’ disciples got scared when a storm rocked their boat by tumultuous waves. They woke Jesus up because their situation seemed disastrous and they worried about losing their lives. But Jesus had told them they were going to the other side. If He said it, He meant it. So, they all would get to the other side no matter how fierce the storm was. They didn’t have to worry. But when we are rocked by the storms of life, it appears that we can only see the effects of the storm close to us and it is difficult to have a clear vision to even see the other side where we are going. We just have to have faith.
What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him rather faith. who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness. Romans 4:1-5
It is not our deeds that make us righteous in God’s sight, but rather faith. Abraham went into the unknown believing God would keep His promises even when nothing made sense. He and His wife were beyond childbearing age, and it seemed impossible for them to have a child. They were tired of waiting and took matters into their own hands and Ishmael came about, but He was not God’s promise. God however, years later, delivered on His promises. Having a child at their age was laughable, but it was no joke. God did it. And we too must also have faith that God will do what He says He will do, even when everything looks like they are against His word. Faith is obeying God when our obedience goes against our natural understanding, and this is why the righteous live by faith.
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