In addition to being made keenly aware of God's tremendous blessings in life, God has really been on me about faith and works working together as James put it so well in chapter 2. Living a life of faith in America, however, is extremely difficult. We really don't have to depend on God for much besides those things over which we have no control: health and death. Don't believe me? Listen carefully to prayer requests next time in church. Because we are so materially blessed, we really don't have to live a life of deep and abiding faith depending on God to provide for our basic needs. Instead we live lives of tremendous excess with very little faith required until we encounter issues that money simply cannot impact - dire health and death. Even our churches suffer from this. Our budgets are set by historical giving and economic projections verses starting with a blank sheet of paper and asking what God is calling each congregation to do for the next day, week, year, and so on. We make ourselves feel better about this by "doing something for God" on occasion, but what has God called us to do besides love him and obey him?
I'm struggling with what God is calling me to do differently. I can feel his constant urging to develop deeper faith, but it seems to me that most of the growth I see in my life and in the lives of the great people of faith in scripture came during times of trial. Perhaps God is preparing me to live through another time of trial. Perhaps God is calling me to do something differently in my personal, family, church, or work life. I'm simply not sure. What I am sure of, however, is a deep conviction that God is issuing a challenge. A challenge to live a life that is more demonstrably dependent on Him.
I'm struggling with what God is calling me to do differently. I can feel his constant urging to develop deeper faith, but it seems to me that most of the growth I see in my life and in the lives of the great people of faith in scripture came during times of trial. Perhaps God is preparing me to live through another time of trial. Perhaps God is calling me to do something differently in my personal, family, church, or work life. I'm simply not sure. What I am sure of, however, is a deep conviction that God is issuing a challenge. A challenge to live a life that is more demonstrably dependent on Him.
1 comment:
Instead of having the trials yourself, you can learn from the trials of others. As you have said before, you can't have all the experiences yourself. And certainly, there are some trials you don't want to have!
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