"Let's go in together..."

Today in our class we continued our study on The Full Armor of God by talking about the "shield of faith". How would our lives be different if, in every situation, we fully trusted and believed in God to protect us, no matter what? What if we faced every single day with the complete confidence that God was there for us and would in every way provide for our good? In other words, what if we had absolute, everyday, unwavering, PERFECT FAITH?

I think no matter our situation, no matter what life brings us, we all face one or more times in our lives where we struggle with our faith. Sure, we believe in God...but like they say, do we really BELIEVE GOD? Like everything else in life, even our faith gets tested. So why can't we have perfect faith?

First of all, let me say that nothing else about us is perfect, so why should our faith be? Once again, we try to do things all on our own, even our faith, and then get frustrated when we fall short. Secondly, Hebrews 12:2, tells us that Jesus is the "author and perfecter of our faith". Like everything else, our faith is dependent on our ability to fully rely and trust in God AND WE CANNOT do it on our own. In fact, we looked at Mark 9:23-24, where a man, when told by Jesus that "everything is possible for him who believes"...simply replied "help me overcome my unbelief!". Sometimes we just need to pray for God to help us with our faith!

Since my role seems to be to provide silly examples, I gave the illustration this morning of one of the hardest physical challenges I've ever faced. Three years ago this week, I ran my first (and only thus far) marathon. As I got to about mile 23, I was (to say the least) exhausted, hurting EVERYWHERE, and not sure I would be able to finish. A guy who had been a little bit in front of me for some time, waited for me to get up to him and said to me "Let's go in together". He proceeded to talk to me (as much as talking is possible at that point) about this being his third marathon and how the ending is just this way and that we'd make it together. Yeah, I made it across the finish line.

To me, that is like my Savior, who has run the ultimate race and paid the ultimate price for every person who ever has and ever will step foot on this earth. He is there for me even when all I have left in me is a simple prayer for my unbelief! No matter where I am, he'll always say "Let's go in together".

Peace out.