Fitness check?

I am very aware of putting faith in loads of different things and people. I may not always call it faith. Basically I believe in something I cannot see but I know it will work. For example when I drive over a bridge I believe it will hold me up, I don’t get out of the car and go and check the state of the bridge before driving over it! I think that if there are no warning signs from the police or council it will be safe.

Another example is when I buy a packet of ginger nuts do I believe they contain ginger and trust the label is telling the truth? Think of all the daily activities we apply faith to; someone says they like our new coat; a builder says he will come tomorrow to mend the leak; the recipe says the cake will be cooked in 20mins; the petrol gauge says we have half a tank of petrol; I expect the chair to hold me when I go to sit on it; the technician says our computer is broken; my daughter tells me I am the best Mum!! Well do I believe the last one??

So daily we are using faith in something or somebody but when it comes to God and all Jesus did we feel faith is such a difficult subject. We started our journey when we became aware of Him with the ‘measure of faith’, (Romans 12:3) as a free gift from God as we trust what Jesus did at the Cross and He really did come back to life. We didn’t see it but we believe it is true, we don’t understand it but that is where our faith starts for all of us, Ephesians 2:8!!

Then what we do with this faith is up to us! We can grow it by speaking the Truth of His Word, Romans 10:17. We are like a precious baby born with approximately 300 bones and 650 muscles, everything we need to live on the earth but no good if we do not feed them or use them. What would happen if we used the muscles in our legs fell down and thought ‘well I won’t do that again it doesn’t work’? Our leg muscles would not grow or strengthen and we could become an immobile 20yr old with other added complications. Jesus did talk about ‘Great faith’ (Matthew 8:10) and ‘Little faith’ (Matthew 4:31) so He must be keen for us to exercise our faith daily, in fact Hebrews 11:6 says ‘without faith it is impossible to please Him’.

 A few weeks ago I was just wondering if I was using faith at all in my walk with God or was I just wandering along being comfortable? I was challenged again to check out what I had prayed about previously and had I just become lazy and accepted the easy way? I realised there were things I had let slip and also new situations that I needed God’s perspective on and so apply my faith muscles and see God move to draw me closer to Him and people to salvation.

I have missed the gym for nearly three weeks as I have been away looking after a friend and was shocked about how weak I felt when I returned. This is such a picture of our faith as we can become so weak in our faith if we do not constantly exercise it by believing for miracles and speaking His Word. No good expecting that when the next major or minor problem arrives on our doormat we can be a ‘woman of power for the hour’ without having done lots of hard work preparing for this time so we can expect an amazing victory in His Name. Get exercising!