Encouragement

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Dear Lord, please have your way in this devotional, and increase our faith as we learn together, amen.

"We are always confident, knowing that while we are home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight." -2 Cornithians 5:6-7

The second half of this verse is a fairly famous one, however the first half is not as popular. Though putting them together, one enhances and sheds light upon the other. We walk by FAITH, not by sight. And when we are in the body, we have all of the limitations that the body has, though when we walk in the SPIRIT we are free from all bodily limitations and we trust God to have His way with us.

Picture this: You are driving along the highway at 70 miles per hour, very fast. You can see about twenty feet ahead of you, but no further. VERY few people drive down the highway at this speed and worry about there being a roadblock 50 plus feet ahead, where they cannot see it. We never drive like little old ladies, with the fear that we will somehow run into a wall if we continue at this speed. Yes, we are cautious, and we always know where the break pedal is, but we do not fear that we will have to use it to make a sudden stop. However, with life, we are often so afraid. We cannot see very far down the road thats ahead of us, and instead of trusting, our foot is constantly on the proverbail break pedal, afraid that there will be something down the road that we cannot handle. If we trust our cars, which are imperfect, and our driving, which is imperfect, why can we not trust our God who is PERFECT?

Faith is an awesome gift

I am reading this book called "How to take the Limits off of God". Its a very good book, but its making me feel very bad! With every chapter I read, I hear myself saying "oops", because so often I do what the author is saying not to do. I put limits on God, and I look with my natural eyes, as opposed to my spiritual ones.

The author says faith is a gift. I don't know about you, but I love gifts. If someone gave me a gift, I would use it (unless it was like an olive green sweater, or something, lol). But all of our Father's gifts are good. God gives us food, and you can bet that I eat it and I enjoy it! God gives us flowers, and you can bet that I love to smell them and enjoy their lovely colours. God gives us friends and you can bet that I love talking to them and enjoying their company. God gave us faith. And unfortunatly, sometimes I toss it into the closet with that old olive green sweater. I don't use it. I'm sorry Lord.
Sometimes, we spend too much time using our eyes, ears, mouths and overactive imaginations and neglect to use the greatest gift of all-faith. "while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord." I don't want to be absent from the Lord, I don't want to limit my God! Besides, even if I do limit Him, He is still limitless, and I may as well just give in and realise that. The sooner we do, the better our lives will be.

I think the Lord really wants to give us a very direct and blunt message today. He wants to say to us "close your eyes, get ina quiet place and think about all the times where I have come through. Think about the people you know, the people throughout history, the people in the bible, and how despite their limited resources, influence, and yes, even their limited faith, I have come through for them in the most glorious of ways, for I am the Most Glorious God!" "There is nothing I cannot do, and by believing that, you are using the greatest gift I have given you, faith."

This season, as we remember His virgin birth, His perfect love, and His awesome provision, let us take our faith out of the bottom of the closet, hold onto it each day, and watch Him move mountains in our lives.

God bless you,
Jamie

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