Faith??

Some days I get so frustrated. I wonder if God does? He blesses us over and over and over...abundantly. And in return...we doubt Him and don't even give Him the chance to supply all our needs. Some days I wonder if God's church really even believes in HIm...or is He just an abstract idea that makes us feel more secure with our deaths. Is He only there to make us feel immortal? No, we would never say that...we just quietly live it by the decisions or indecision in our lives.

God is REAL. God is LOVE. God's realness shows through in HIS love for us. All we have to do is look around and we will see His blessings just overflowing. All we have to do is look back at the times where we stepped out in faith and see how richly God rewarded that. God is bigger than money...God is bigger than attendance...God is bigger than a bad economy.

He always has and always will provide. It may not be in the way we think He ought to. Sometimes, I believe He lets us plunge downward just so we have to look up and trust Him to take care of us. Why, when God has done so much in each of our lives, can we not believe in Him to take care of us in the future?

We make our decisions based on what we see and hold. We occasionally give God wiggle room, but not much and only if we control it. I wonder...what could GOD's church do...if we just had the faith of a mustard seed?

We laugh at the disciple's lack of faith and Jesus telling them they could move mountains if they so chose...but we fail to see how most days we don't even have the faith they do. Even with their tiny faith, they allowed God to build His church through them. The church then was vibrant and alive. They made HUGE mistakes. Their worship was atrocious at times (see Corinthians). And yet, they all had faith. They believed in the GOD they loved and they knew loved them. They believed enough to know HE would see them through their errors. HE would see them through economic disasters (See Jerusalem - around 60-70AD) They had faith that even in the face of torture and death that their God would see them through. They recognized their flaws, but believed God was bigger. They let Him be in control. Was the church of the 1st century perfect? Not even close! Every letter in the New Testament is written to churches telling them what they need to fix and yet each one believed in doing whatever it took to get the message of Christ to a world that was lost.

For some reason, somewhere along the line, we decided we had it all figured out. We knew what it took to be the "perfect church". And somewhere in there, we felt the need to begin to micro manage God's church. REALLY??? Like we can do a better job than God with HIS church??? He blesses us so abundantly and yet we plunder His blessings. HE gives us talented people and we tell them they have to fit the roles we give them. HE gives us funds and we refuse to use them, just in case we might lose some of them. HE gives us vibrance and excitement in our youth and we legislate them down until they are lifeless.

THIS is not the church that I read about in the first century. They did "whatever it took", even if it meant they sometimes got it wrong.

"Whatever it takes" is a big step of faith. It may mean making my decisions differently. It may mean coming to a point where I can truly say, "I serve an awesome, mighty God who loves me and will not abandon me".