In A Letter To Andrew…
Hi Andrew,
I’ve been learning the lesson of faith these past couple of days. I’ll just put down all that I’ve learnt and what has hit me anew…
Faith is different from belief. Faith is an action. Jesus says in Matthew that when we have faith as small as a mustard seed, it can move mountains. Faith doesn’t automatically come to us when we accept Jesus into our lives. We have to take the action of planting our faith (seed) and then it grows. Faith cannot be big enough to move a mountain at the seed stage; but when it grows into a tree, it can move anything. So faith has to be nurtured and grown. Which basically means that I should take it one step at a time. Not try to have faith for really big, seemingly impossible problems, immediately. But have faith in the small things, and eventually I will have faith for the big things. God doesn’t expect me to have full-grown tree-sized faith instantly.
The story of the Roman centurion, who had faith in Jesus’ power to heal his servant, taught me that God values faith more than anything else. Trusting and having faith that God just has to say something and it will be done. Also the passage in Hebrews 11, which says that faith, is
I’ve been learning the lesson of faith these past couple of days. I’ll just put down all that I’ve learnt and what has hit me anew…
Faith is different from belief. Faith is an action. Jesus says in Matthew that when we have faith as small as a mustard seed, it can move mountains. Faith doesn’t automatically come to us when we accept Jesus into our lives. We have to take the action of planting our faith (seed) and then it grows. Faith cannot be big enough to move a mountain at the seed stage; but when it grows into a tree, it can move anything. So faith has to be nurtured and grown. Which basically means that I should take it one step at a time. Not try to have faith for really big, seemingly impossible problems, immediately. But have faith in the small things, and eventually I will have faith for the big things. God doesn’t expect me to have full-grown tree-sized faith instantly.
The story of the Roman centurion, who had faith in Jesus’ power to heal his servant, taught me that God values faith more than anything else. Trusting and having faith that God just has to say something and it will be done. Also the passage in Hebrews 11, which says that faith, is
“…the evidence of things not seen and the hope of things to come.” Faith in God has nothing to do with what I can touch, see or experience.
I heard this story about a trapeze artist in a circus who walked the tightrope, way up high near the top of the Big Tent, pushing a wheelbarrow in front of him. After he’d walked across it, he called down to the people below and said, “Do you all believe that I can walk that tightrope with a wheelbarrow in front of me?” The people answered, “Of course, we saw you do it just now, so we believe you can do it.” So the trapeze artist then said, “Well, who’s going to get into the wheelbarrow then?”
I asked myself that question when I heard that story and I realised that I would be too afraid to trust anyone with my life how many ever times I had seen him walk a tightrope!
Do I have enough faith in God to get into the wheelbarrow? I realised that I probably, very rarely, have put my complete, absolute faith in God without holding on to the reins of my life. I like to be in control, know what’s going to happen next, be prepared. But having faith in Him requires a certain amount of lack of control! And it’s so hard to let go of that! But all He wants of me now, is faith as small as a mustard seed.
So God and I are working on that right now. Do you know that hymn, “He Leadeth Me”? We sang it in church on Sunday. I think it was what I was praying and trying to put into words.
Love,
Ruth
I heard this story about a trapeze artist in a circus who walked the tightrope, way up high near the top of the Big Tent, pushing a wheelbarrow in front of him. After he’d walked across it, he called down to the people below and said, “Do you all believe that I can walk that tightrope with a wheelbarrow in front of me?” The people answered, “Of course, we saw you do it just now, so we believe you can do it.” So the trapeze artist then said, “Well, who’s going to get into the wheelbarrow then?”
I asked myself that question when I heard that story and I realised that I would be too afraid to trust anyone with my life how many ever times I had seen him walk a tightrope!
Do I have enough faith in God to get into the wheelbarrow? I realised that I probably, very rarely, have put my complete, absolute faith in God without holding on to the reins of my life. I like to be in control, know what’s going to happen next, be prepared. But having faith in Him requires a certain amount of lack of control! And it’s so hard to let go of that! But all He wants of me now, is faith as small as a mustard seed.
So God and I are working on that right now. Do you know that hymn, “He Leadeth Me”? We sang it in church on Sunday. I think it was what I was praying and trying to put into words.
Love,
Ruth
Sometimes ‘mid scenes of deepest gloom,
Sometimes where Eden’s bowers bloom,
By waters still, over troubled sea,
Still ‘tis His hand that leadeth me.
Lord I would place my hand in Thine,
Nor ever murmur nor repine;
Content, whatever lot I see,
Since ‘tis my God that leadeth me.
Sometimes where Eden’s bowers bloom,
By waters still, over troubled sea,
Still ‘tis His hand that leadeth me.
Lord I would place my hand in Thine,
Nor ever murmur nor repine;
Content, whatever lot I see,
Since ‘tis my God that leadeth me.
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