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How to Live Out your Faith

April 3, 2008 : Jennifer Gelar
For each of us, there are many things in life we hope for. Faith is the basis of those things in which we hope for, the evidence of the things we do not yet see. We do not hope for things that our faith does not warrant. So, where does our faith lie? Is the object of our faith able to handle big hopes and dreams?
We must build our hopes and dreams on a secure, unmoving foundation. When it comes to our lives, we can plan for hours, but we can never determine what actually takes place. The only thing we can do is to know the God who controls everything, including the weather and our next heart beat. We need to know Him as much as we possibly can. His personality, His likes, His dislikes, what He’s done in the past, and what He plans to do in the future. We need to seek His will because it’s the only thing that is certain to happen.
In my own experience with living out faith, I have found certain things to be beneficial to having a real relationship with God and helping me to know God’s will and act upon it. Here are five important things to consider:
- Know who you are. When we give our lives over to God, repenting that we are sinners and believing that through Jesus, our punishment is paid and we are given the gift of eternal life, we become God’s children. As the sons and daughters of the King of Heaven and Earth, we have great privileges. For one thing, we can approach the King anytime and know that He listens and acts out of unconditional love for us. We also have the inheritance of all the Kingdom treasures!
- Communicate with God. Speak to Him honestly and see what He has to say, in His Word, the Bible. Read it, listen to it being preached and remember it. God is capable of making anything possible and He certainly cannot be put in a box. Only when we truly believe that God is more powerful than what our imaginations can fathom, do we start seeing impossibilities happen. We will move out of the way and stop building cardboard play houses and let the Carpenter do His work.
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Trust. We need to trust that what He says as truth. When He says He will provide, the provisions will come. He is leading us to what He has promised for us. We have to take His promises and put them in the pockets of our hearts and cash them in when doubts come. If we are not with God waiting day by day for our manna, we are slaves in the hands of evil.
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Obey. When God is telling us to do something or to not do something, we need to obey. He always knows better. He knows everything about each person on earth. Thoughts, past, and what the future holds. He also knows when the storms will come. So if He’s telling us to stay, we need to stay. If He’s telling us to go, we need to go. We need to obey right away. It’s for our benefit. Disobedience will only bring pain.
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Understand that God’s Providence is Perfect. For now, we can only see small segments of God’s enormous and perfect plan. Nothing ever happens by chance. As novelists would only include details that bear significance in the story, God is the great Author of our lives and everything really does have a purpose. A certain story tells of a traveler wanting to buy an expensive mat. The vendor pointed upward and said that the mat above their heads is the best there is. The traveler complained of how unsightly it looked, but when the vendor brought him on the roof to see the mat the right side up, he was left speechless in great wonder of how truly exquisite it was. At this time we can only view life from a limited perspective. However, it is for the beautiful life He is weaving for us a tapestry that will only leave us in awe once revealed.