Skipping around through my bible, I came across some verses that got me thinking…
Many of us are familiar with the scripture from Hebrews 12:2 …Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith,
and then I read in Acts 3:15, Peter saying …You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead…
and so it made me think, that in some ways, faith is life.
Stay with me a minute here…
Whatever we place our faith in, becomes essentially, what we base our life on – what we live for. You may not have thought of it this way, but really, we choose what to place our faith in, even if we think we don’t have ‘faith’.
If it’s money and possessions that we rely on to satisfy us, we go down the path of materialism. If it’s a relationship with someone, our happiness and joy hangs on the every word, action and approval of that person, or those we love, and so then our chance of offense is great. If we place our faith in our work, what we do for a living, then our satisfaction hinges on our daily success on the job, in whatever expectations our boss or co-workers have placed on us, or that next raise, that next promotion.
Sometimes, worse yet, we simply place our faith in ourselves. We don’t need any help, we think I got this, I don’t need anyone, I can handle it. If our faith is in ourselves, we live in fear. Fear of failure, fear of disappointment, fear of what others think of us and of everything we do.
Even when it is our family that is our identity and our highest priority, and what we place our faith in, that can be a misplaced level of importance, too.
But… if we place our faith in God, and His promises, our life resides more in the spirit realm. We can begin to see ourselves the way God sees us, and that our hope is not in the things of this world, but in what God has planned for us. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Heb 11:1
We can then truly live as though we are in this world, but not of it. That we are simply passing through. Maybe then our focus can be – Will the world be a better place because I was here? Have I left my little corner of the planet better off than I found it? Has anyone else’s life benefited because I was here?
Maybe some food for thought as we enter 2018.
Wishing you all a Happy, Healthy, Blessed New Year!
Thank you, Sherry, for your insights. Reading your blog was the best way to start 2018! God Bless You.
Happy New Year 🙂
Thanks, Joanne! Glad you liked it. Happy New Year! Wishing you health, joy and peace in 2018.
I loved reading this. I want to comment but to make a long story short,it would be a short story long,to express everything. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for your ‘comment-not-comment’ (Ha, see what I did there?) Glad you liked it! Please feel free to comment freely;) – if ever the mood strikes.
Sherry I love how you interpreted the scripture. How true is that for all of us. We all place our faith in something! We just typically associate faith with religion. So we need to be careful who our god is in this world. Is it God or a god (worldly things). Thanks
Bryan, you are so right. We Do need to be careful – it’s so easy to fall back into valuing the wrong things. Thanks for your comment!