faith

Faith - "Putting my trust in God." Why do we have such a hard time believing God is faithful? Throughout the Bible, God has promised that He will be there with us. For example, in Hebrews it says,

"...for He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. (Hebrews 13:5 KJV)


This God who promises to be with you is the same one who created our amazingly vast universe. He is the one who put each one of the stars into place (even those stars that are larger than our own sun.) This is the very same God that created me, you and of course, The Doctor. He loves us so very much that He even keeps track of how many hairs we have on our heads. If God loves us so much then why do we doubt that He will provide for us? Why do we sometimes think that God has played a mean trick on us when something goes wrong in our lives? In Ephesians, God tells us some pretty amazing things. Look!

"And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power..." (Ephesians 1:19 KJV)


This is talking of God's awesome and great power towards those of us who believe in Him. The culture that we live in tells us to be confident in ourselves, to know that we can do anything we want and to believe that we can even fly! Think about the reality of this for a moment. Most days I don't even think I can get out of bed, let alone fly. So what, or should I say who do we need to believe in? We need to place our faith and trust in Jesus!

Think about this: if you had the option of staying in a house during a storm, which would you choose?

  1. A house built on sand with no concrete foundation but made only of hay and palm tree leaves.
  2. A house built on a high rock with a foundation built right into the rock itself.

Hint - if you choose the house on sand then you are a goner.

Jesus is the rock that our lives need to be built on! If we try to build our lives based on friends, movies, our social life, or even something like education we are building our lives on a sand foundation. These things in themselves are not bad but our hope and trust needs to be on Jesus alone. When those hard times come like deaths or disease, only one person is able to strengthen us - Jesus

God's power is so great towards each one of us who will believe in Him. Now this verse does not mean if we have enough faith we will get anything we want. God sees all things past, present, and future. He knows what is best for us, even if we think we might know better. When someone in our family dies or we break up with a special girlfriend/boyfriend, we sometimes think this is the end of the world. God's power is so much stronger than each one of these things that happens.

When these situations arise we have two choices:

  1. We can get mad at God for what happened, or...
  2. We will allow God to work in our lives to show His great power over our situation.

I know for me, my first reaction is to get upset over a situation that happened. Then as I talk about it with God He begins to calm me down and work in my heart. (Side note - Prayer is talking with God. We don't always have to kneel and fold our hands. Sometimes I find the best way to talk to God is to just go for a walk and get it all off my chest by talking with Him! Jesus is our friend and likes for us to tell Him what is going on in our lives.)

It is still not always easy to understand why things happen, but we just need to remember that God does know best. It is even more than Him knowing best. He wants the very best for us and He will even "move mountains" to see that the best happens.

Think about this. The Mighty God who created the huge universe came down to be a man. If you have ever been in a plane before you know how small even the tallest buildings look and yet our God came down as a tiny man. Wow!! He didn't even come down as a royal king but as a humble servant. He was then crucified for our sins. The following verses give us some further insight...

"The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, which he worked in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all things under his feet..." (Ephesians 1:18-22 KJV)


Jesus did not stay buried; God raised Him from the dead. And what these verses are saying is that the very same power which God worked to raise Jesus from the dead, He wants to use in our lives. WOW!! If we know Jesus as our personal savior we can believe He will be faithful to us. Verse 21 says far above all other power, names, everything. This power is going to go on forever and ever and ever. Jesus wants us to have hope in Him and His calling for our lives. Whatever it is that we are struggling with we can bring it to God.

Everyday as you are going through situations remember this. Have faith in Jesus!! He wants only the best for you and He has conquered all. We have nothing to fear. He loves you sooooo very much.


This study was guest authored by Mike Schuman

The Doctor is not a real doctor but he plays one on the Internet. E-Mail prescriptions are also available on an individual basis.


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Except as indicated, all Scriptural references taken from The Living Bible, © 1971, Tyndale House Publishers


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