Why is our faith broken?

I don’t mean faith as a substitute word for religion – I mean faith, the substance of things hoped for.

The proof of the pudding.

Shouldn’t we be seeing financial miracles, people dancing out of wheelchairs, kids in the cancer ward miraculously with full heads of hair and no sign of cancer, families restored, the list of would be miracles goes on and on and yet it really doesn’t, does it?

Maybe if we just hit it with a hammer it would start working?

Its not like we don’t hope for those miracles but the difference is that:

faith is when hope becomes reality.

I know, I sound like I’ve got this whole faith thing figured out, huh?

Not really.  Truthfully I’m writing for myself tonight more than anything else because I am in the middle of my own personal boot camp of faith.

God is stretching faith muscles I didn’t really know I had.  It’s painful and I’ve fallen down a lot, gotten mud in my face, had to crawl under barbed wire but the sick thing is. . . I kinda like it.

Not the pain but the realization that my faith is growing which means I’m one step closer to being a part of those miracles – partnering with God to bring the heaven, he so desperately desires for his kids, to earth.

I’m stoked.

Even as I type this I’m believing God for an insane amount of money to cover our bills.

Again.

I would laugh if my faith muscles weren’t so sore.

And as I’m believing God for this money to show up, I hear this thought flash across my mind.

“It’s okay if the money doesn’t come through.  You’re on your way, but your faith just isn’t there quite yet.”

My first reaction was to agree with it.  It sounds mildly encouraging even if it’s patronizing.

But then I took a step back and realized that wasn’t how God would want me to think.  He would want me to be crazy courageous believing that the money was coming through.

When Jesus told Peter to come to him on the water.  He didn’t say something patronizing like, “Well, Peter, how’s your faith today?”  or “Were you responsible enough to remember your water shoes?”

Jesus said, “Come!”

Matthew 14:25-31 (HCSB)

Around three in the morning, He came toward them walking on the sea. When the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost!” they said, and cried out in fear.

 Immediately Jesus spoke to them. “Have courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

 “Lord, if it’s You,” Peter answered Him, “command me to come to You on the water.”

 “Come!” He said.

And climbing out of the boat, Peter started walking on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the strength of the wind^, he was afraid. And beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me!”

 Immediately Jesus reached out His hand, caught hold of him, and said to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” 

So after I decided I wasn’t going to agree with the thought that let me off the hook for really going all in for trusting God to provide, I had this realization that we stand on the threshold of so many of God’s promises and throw the towel in right before we see the promise materialize because we’ve aborted our faith.

We kill it right before it sees the light of day.

We get suckered by the lie that God’s not really coming through after all and so we scramble in our minds to come up with our back-up plans, because we know all too well that disappointment hurts.

And we abort our faith under the pretense that since he hasn’t come through yet. . . well, we should face it – he isn’t coming through at all.

Sadly we miss out on that awesome experience of walking with Jesus on the water.

I bet it was epic!  Super-hero like, even to see Jesus walking on water.

And I imagine that Jesus was excited that Peter had the courage to walk on the water with him.  Just as he’s excited when we stretch our faith to be that much more like him, that much more with him.

And what does he say, but “Come!”.

Don’t give up on your faith – it’s not broken.

It’s just being stretched.

Feel free to grab an ice pack and join me.