Family of God: Re: [FamilyofGod] To Share...

And thanx again lashanda I have been lacking in faith recently due to personal problems

On Wed Jan 19th, 2011 3:58 PM EST Lashanda W. wrote:

>Family,
>
>Here is one of the articles that spoke to me this weekend. It's very powerful.
>Enjoy!!! :-) Tell me what you think.
>
>Also, if this article speaks to you, feel free to do as I did and join
>startingwithGod.com or visit the site. There is a wealth of resources there.
>
>Faith Is Not a Feeling
>by startingwithGod.com on April 28, 2010
>Understanding how to trust God…
>By Ney Bailey
>
> I poured myself a glass of ice-cold lemonade, sharpened a pencil, and pulled
>out my Bible, eager to begin my assignment. Earlier in the day the professor for
>my summer school Bible course had instructed us, "Bring back to the class a
>report on everything the book of Romans has to say about faith." It sounded like
>an easy assignment, one that wouldn't take me long.
>But I was in for a surprise. I soon discovered that the word faith appears
>numerous times in Romans and that my study would take longer than I'd thought.
>Defining faith
>
>As I read what Romans had to say about faith, I found myself asking, Faith is
>probably the most important thing in my life, but how do I define it? What is
>it?
>My mind flashed back eight years when I first joined the Christian organization,
>Campus Crusade for Christ. Back then I didn't understand a walk of faith. I've
>come so far in my understanding, I thought. But even with all that I'd learned
>about faith, I realized that I still couldn't define it.
>I knew that the Bible made hundreds of references to faith, such as "The just
>shall live by faith"1 and "This is the victory that has overcome the world—our
>faith."2 But I was surprised that I couldn't come up with a simple, personalized
>definition of the word; I had never completed the statement: "For me, faith is
>___________________."
>I prayed, Lord, how would You define faith?
>A story came to mind in which Jesus had told someone, "Not even in Israel have I
>found such great faith." What was it that Jesus had called "great faith"?
>I quickly looked up the passage in Luke 7 about the centurion who was willing to
>believe that Jesus could heal a loyal and trusted servant who was near death.
>The centurion told Jesus, "Just say the word, and my servant will be healed."3
>Then the centurion used a personal example to illustrate that he understood what
>it meant to be taken at His word and obeyed.
>In response to the centurion, Jesus turned to the crowd that was following Him
>and said, "I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such great faith."4
>Jesus seemed to be saying that "great faith" was simply taking Him at His word.
>Could this definition be confirmed elsewhere in Scripture? Since Hebrews 11 is
>often referred to as "faith's hall of fame," I turned there.
>Taking God at His Word
>
>After reading and rereading the passage, with all its references to the phrase
>"by faith," I began to see that all the people mentioned had one thing in
>common: No matter whom the writer of Hebrews was talking about, each person had
>simply taken God at His word and obeyed His command. And they were remembered
>for their faith.
>For example, God told Noah to build an ark because He was going to bring a
>massive flood. Noah took God at His word and built the ark.5
>God told Abraham to go out to a place that he would receive as an inheritance.
>Abraham took God at His word, left his familiar surroundings, and he went.6
>God indicated to Sarah, who was long past the age of childbearing, that she
>would conceive a son. The Scripture states: "She considered Him faithful who had
>promised."7 She took God at His word.
>Regardless of circumstances, despite arguments of logic and reason, and
>regardless of how he or she felt, each person mentioned in Hebrews 11 believed
>God and His word and chose to be obedient.
>I began to wonder, If Luke 7 and Hebrews 11 illustrate great faith, is there a
>passage that illustrates a lack of faith?
>Then I remembered an incident from Mark 4 in which Jesus had just finished a
>full day of preaching and teaching by the shores of Galilee. He instructed the
>disciples to go to the other side of the sea. Initially, they took Jesus at His
>word, got into a boat with Him, and headed for the other side. But when a storm
>arose, they grew fearful and lost confidence that they would actually reach the
>shore. When Jesus asked them, "How is it that you have no faith?"8 He could just
>as easily have said, "Why are you not taking Me at My word?"
>I have always loved the first verse of Mark 5: "And they came to the other side
>of the sea." Jesus' word proved to be true.
>Through my study of these three passages, I had arrived at a simple, workable
>definition of faith: Faith is taking God at His word. I wasn't sure if I would
>ever have a report on all the book of Romans says about faith, but I knew that I
>had learned something that would prove to be very significant in my walk with
>God.
>What does God say about His Word?
>
>Still, I had one more question. If faith is a matter of taking God at His word,
>what does God say about His word? I found the answer in Scripture itself:
>"Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words shall not pass away."9
>"The word of the Lord abides forever."10
>"The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever."11
>These verses were telling me that everything in life may change, but God's Word
>remains constant. His truth never changes. I was beginning to catch a glimpse of
>how faith in God's promises could affect me the rest of my life.
>For instance, I feel things very deeply. At times I am so happy I think I will
>never be sad again. Other times I am so sad I think I will never be happy
>again…and still other times I feel almost nothing.
>But as strong and as fluctuating as my feelings are, God's Word is
> * truer than anything I feel
> * truer than anything I experience
> * truer than any circumstance I will ever face
> * truer than anything in the world
>Why? Because heaven and earth will pass away, but God's Word will not. This
>means that no matter how I feel or what I experience, I can choose to depend on
>the Word of God as the unchanging reality of my life.
>I look back on that summer evening and that homework assignment as a turning
>point in my life. Innumerable times since then, when circumstances and feelings
>have seemed more real than life itself, I've chosen to believe that God's Word
>is truer than anything else. I've chosen to walk by faith.
>Sometimes that choice has been difficult.
>What about feelings?
>
>There were times after that summer evening when I didn't feel God's love. I
>could choose to dwell on that feeling, letting it carry me into a state of
>self-pity, or I could say, "Lord, I don't feel loved. That is the truth. That is
>where I am right now. But, Lord, Your Word says that You love me. In fact,
>You've said that You have loved me with an everlasting love.12 You never stop
>loving me. Your love for me is one thing that stands when all else has fallen.13
>Your Word says there is no partiality with You. That means You don't love anyone
>else in the world more than you love me. So, Lord, I thank You that I am loved
>by You.14 Your Word is truer than how I feel."
>I began to realize that this kind of response to my feelings gave me the freedom
>both to be honest with God about my feelings and to choose to believe God's Word
>when my feelings contradict His promises.
>At other times I have felt afraid or lonely or depressed. My heart has literally
>ached in anguish over circumstances of life, and in those moments I have been
>the most tempted to doubt the truth of God's Word. But instead I chose with my
>will to believe His Word. Thousands of times my prayers have begun, "Lord, I
>feel…but, Lord, Your Word says…"
>And I've found that He does bring my emotions in line with His Word, in His own
>timing and in His way.
>We are created as emotional beings
>
>When I've been tempted to condemn myself for how I feel, it has helped me to
>remember that God created us in His image and that part of His image is that we
>are emotional beings. Feelings aren't wrong. Even Christ had feelings. He didn't
>"try not to feel." He did not hide His emotions; instead, He took them into His
>relationship with His Father. He was honest, real, authentic. In the Garden of
>Gethsemane the night before His crucifixion, Scripture tells us that Jesus was
>"distressed," "deeply grieved," "troubled," and "in agony."15 Jesus expressed
>how He felt and trusted the Father in the midst of His feelings.
>We, too, have immeasurable freedom to be candid with the Lord about our
>feelings, to tell Him honestly where we are and what is going on in our lives.
>How do we respond?
>
>The Bible promises that, for those of us who truly love God, everything that
>happens in our lives will have the effect of molding us into Christ's image.16
>Some of us may have prayed a prayer similar to this: "Lord, I pray You'd make me
>more like You. I pray that You would conform me to the image of Christ." Often,
>what we really want is for God to give us an anesthetic so we can be unconscious
>while He performs surgery on our hearts in order to conform us to Christ's
>perfect character. We don't want to wake up until the transformation is
>complete! We want the result but not the painful process.
>But God doesn't work that way. The Lord is concerned about what we go through,
>but I believe He is more concerned about how we respond to what we go through.
>That response is a matter of our wills. He allows the trials, temptations, and
>pressures of life to come so that we have the opportunity to respond either by
>trusting our feelings and life experiences or by taking Him at His word.
>I have learned to get into the habit of taking God at His word—and now it is a
>habit! You and I can either grow accustomed to listening to our feelings,
>thoughts, and circumstances, letting them control us, or we can be in the habit
>of taking God at His word despite our feelings and life experiences. We need to
>choose with our wills to believe that His Word is truer than our feelings.
>I have made a lifetime commitment to bank my life on the Word of God, and God
>has honored that commitment. And yet, there have been times when I could have
>easily gone back on my commitment because I couldn't believe that anything was
>truer than what I was going through—times when my feelings have screamed 180
>degrees in the opposite direction of God's Word but over and over I have found
>God to be faithful to His Word.
>1Romans 1:17, KJV
>21 John 5:4
>3Luke 7:7
>4Luke 7:9
>5Hebrews 11:7
>6Hebrews 11:8
>7Hebrews 11:11
>8Mark 4:40
>9Matthew 24:35
>101 Peter 1:25
>11Isaiah 40:8
>12Jeremiah 31:3
>131 Corinthians 13
>14Acts 10:34
>15Matthew 26:37-38; Mark 14:33; Luke 22:44
>16Romans 8:28-29
>This article is an excerpt from Ney Bailey's book Faith Is Not A Feeling.
>Copyright © 2002. Published by WaterBrook Press. Used by permission of the
>author.
> LaShanda
>
>"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him
>that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but
>is passed from death unto life." (John 5:24)
>
>
>
>