Faith

God is so good. He loves meeting us where we are. He loves it when we begin to understand and seek Him in the ways that excite us. There are so many aspects to our faith and there is such a beauty that comes with each one.

Having faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.  (Hebrews 11:1) Faith is knowing something so deeply that we are willing to give our whole lives to it.
 
Some aspects of faith that I think of are emotional, intellectual, voluntary, and heart. When we relate to God emotionally, we can receive His gifts. We have the Holy Spirit to fill us with hope and peace. This hope goes deeper than just a wish and this peace goes deeper than just a sense of calm. We begin to gain confidence in God. We see the fruits that he gives and feel assurance in His presence.

When we view our faith intellectually, we form a belief about God. This belief goes deeper than feelings. It roots you. There are always hard seasons, times where it’s really hard to hear God and see the fruits of the gifts that He has freely given to us. God knows us and He made us with intellect. He made us beautifully complex with a desire for knowledge. He wants us to ask and understand. In our confusion and in our distance, He wants us to keep seeking Him. He is always searching for us and He is so honored when we turn back and look for Him. It is good to question. It is good to seek answers but if you become discouraged because of the magnitude of God or cannot grasp truth, remember that His truth is greater than any human reason. He is still there and He will always reveal himself to us. In Genesis 1:27, it says that He created us in His image. I want us to just think about the power of that line. He created us to know Him because we were created by Him. Our whole bodies were created in His image; this includes our minds, our souls, our hearts… everything. 1 Corinthians 2:9-13 says the following: “But, as it is written, ‘what no eye has seen, nor ear has heard, nor the human heart has conceived, what God has prepared for those who love Him’ these things God has revealed to us through the spirit; for the spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For what human being knows what is truly human except the human spirit that is within it? So also no one comprehends what is truly God’s except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. And we speak these things in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual things to those who are spiritual.”Because we are in relationship with God, we have His spirit flowing through us. We have the capacity not only to know Him but to know Him deeply. Just as He is able to know our innermost thoughts and desires, so we also get to know Him more and more deeply. He created us to be capable of truly knowing Him.
 
God is kind in that He gives us the choice to follow Him, and when we make the decision to follow Him we grow to understand that we have a place in His kingdom as a daughter or son of the King and our whole lives are changed. This is a voluntary faith. This type of faith transforms our will to be aligned with God’s will. It takes love to a deeper place than just a feeling. It’s a type of love that manifests itself in our actions.

In Proverbs 4:23 it says “With all vigilance guard your heart, for in it are the sources of life.” Having a heart of faith is more than a feeling. The heart is our core. The center of our soul. It is in this place that the Holy Spirit works in us. It is our source of life, both physical and eternal. The Holy Spirit lives in us and flows out of us,  it draws us to God.
 
My prayer for you is that of James 1:2-5: “My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given to you. But ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind; for the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord.”

I pray that if your faith gets tested, you would know that it will give you endurance. That if you are lacking wisdom, you would seek it purely, not because you are doubting God but because your heart is pure. That you would seek to know God. That you would listen for His desires, that you would open your heart and let His spirit move in you. That in the seasons where you don’t feel His presence, you would fall back on what you know of God to be true and ask Him to transform the lies in our lives to truths that come from Him. I pray that these moments would lead you to a greater knowledge of yourself and for you to see that God formed every part of you to be made in His image.
 
Author | Natalie Mata