Struggling with faith........

These past semester has been one of the toughest periods in my Christian life. With both the situation going on with my mom, as well as the difficulties that I have encountered in trying to get a staff job squared away with the Men's Basketball Team after graduation, as well as juggling a VERY intense workload in my 5 Senior Level Business classes, my faith has been stretched, tested and challenged in a variety of ways. For a couple of weeks now I have been reading a book by Pastor Jim Cymbala, the Head of the Brooklyn Tabernacle Church called Fresh Faith. Pastor Cymbala had come to LU last semester and spoke, and I have had the book since Christmas, but have only just now started reading it. I was reading some stuff in Chapter 3 today that was a great deal of help in this daily struggle that I am facing to have faith in Christ no matter what the circumstances. Allow me to share some of what I have learned from Pastor Cymbala.

At the start of Chapter 3, I came across these lines that put a finger on some of my faith struggles. Pastor Cymbala said, "When most of us think about how we are doing spiritually, we think about surface things. We zero in on behavior patterns, such as have we been gossiping, have we been staying true to our marriage, have we been reading our Bibles, have we been tithing ? We concentrate on outward works while forgetting that they are simply the fruit of a deeper spiritual factor."

As I thought about that passage, I realize how frail my faith really has been during these past couple of months. Here I am thinking that I'm doing good because my wife and I are reguarly attending church, I'm meeting weekly with an accountability partner, we're tithing reguarly, we're serving at our church and I'm maintaining a steady devotional time with the Lord. I look at all those "activities" and I realize that at the core of it, I'm not allowing my "faith" to be strengthened by those activities because I'm not thinking that my faith NEEDED to be strengthened. As the past couple of weeks especially has shown, that was the wrong attitude to take.

Later on in Chapter 3, Pastor Cymbala made a statement based off 1 Peter Chapter 1 vs 5 that literally put a spotlight on how my lack of faith is affecting my mindset towards several important key areas of my life right now, especially in regards to my job situation with the basketball team that I work for currently. Pastor Cymbala said, "Faith ALONE is the trigger that releases divine power. As Peter wrote, it is through FAITH that we are shielded by God's power(1 Peter 1:5). Our trying, struggling, or promising won't work-FAITH is what God is after. Faith in the key to our relationship with Him."

As I read 1 Peter Chapter 1 today, I was struck by the verses 3-9 in how applicable they are to what I have been going through these past couple of months. I love what Pastor Cymbala was able to share some insight into those verses that was so right on for what I've been going through these past couple of months. Here's the verses, then Pastor Cymbala's thoughts,

"All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see. So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you have to endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world. You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls."

I loved Pastor Cymbala's thoughts on that passage as well, "When most people break down in their Christian life, they simply "try harder." I have since learned that the most mature believer is the one who is bent over, leaning most heavily on the Lord, and admitting his total inability to do anything without Christ. The greatest Christian is not the one who has ACHEIVED the most, but rather the one who has RECEIVED the most. God's grace, love and mercy flow through him abudantly because he walks in total dependence. The Christian who is getting right is the one who follows the words of Hebrews 12 vs 2, turning the other way and looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith."

Reading those words was both convicting but also satisfying. Even today, facing the many struggles going on in my life, whether they be financial, or with my mom, or this job situation, it's so comforting to know that it's ok to admit that I'm weak and that I need to trust Christ for His provision to help my faith through those struggles today. How about you believer, do you try to control your life and the circumstances that you deal with like I have done ?? If so, I pray the Lord opens your eyes the way He opened mine to the simple fact that struggling along without real faith in Christ is not the way to go.