"FAITH AT A HIGHER LEVEL"

Good Evening To All!

The Lord had said to Abram, "Leave your native country, your relatives, and your fathers, family, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. (Genesis 12:1-2 NLT)

Can you imagine what that was like? I have moved to a different country with my husband (ex) while he was in the military, but I had confidence because I knew where I was going ahead of time. I did not have someone tell me leave everything and everyone you know behind and go to where I'm going to show you. I knew in advance where I was going, so I also had a chance to learn a little bit about the country and even some of the language (even if it was the wrong dialect). I knew I could make it.

Abram only had his faith in God. He had no idea where God was going to lead him. I can't help but wonder how Sarai felt. I'm sure her initial reaction was "WHAT?!, and then her faith kicked in as well. ( of course this is before God changed their names to Abraham and Sarah).

I know when I first got married out of high school, I looked at it as an adventure and a way to "get away" from home. I was 18 years old and ready to "spread my wings. So my new husband and I headed up to New Jersey. Considering I had only been out of Texas for a total of 1 month during the summer of my 8th grade year in Junior
High, 3 months during the fall of that same year, and a week during my Junior year in high school, New Jersey was like a foreign country to me. I think the waitress that waited on us in the drug store where we went in to have coffee and look in the paper for a place to live, probably thought I was from a foreign country! LOL! I went in and started talking to her like I had known her for a long time, and she looked at me like I was crazy. LOL! I won't ever forget that. It is really funny (now). Not so much then, I thought she was being rude. ( How would I know? ) At home I had "never met a stranger". I could talk to anyone (except my own dad).

Switching back to the verse at hand...

We all need to step out in faith. I wish I would have had the relationship with God when I was young that I have now. I probably would have been a lot wiser without all the drama I had in my life up until 25 years ago.

PLEASE excuse my plain language, but if we would just get it through out "thick skulls", that God knows us better than we know ourselves, that He sees EVERYTHING from END to the BEGINNING, so He knows what is best for us, therefore in would be to our own advantage to allow Him to direct our path and lead us in the RIGHT direction. We should NOT lean unto our own understanding, but trust in the Lord always.

I wonder if there is anyone alive to day with the amount of faith that these men showed. Abraham in his situations such as "being told to sacrifice his son, and to leave the life he knew so well behind. Joshua having faith to listen to God and march around the wall of Jericho to bring it down and of course there are many, many more.

By now, most of you probably know pretty much all of my story. I can't help but think that my life would have been quite a bit different had I been serious about having a relationship with God at a younger age. I started off at least in the general right direction, but lost it at a crucial age when my mom died and I had to start moving around a lot. The relatives which I lived with didn't place a high priority on church and didn't push it. I didn't figure I was going to be at each place long, so I didn't want to make new friends just to leave them behind, so I kept putting going to church off. Needless to say, my faith seem to dwindle. But thank God that He didn't leave me or forsake me. He waited patiently for me to come back to Him. That is why I am so glad that He sees the beginning FROM the END. He knew I would. It took many years, and several different people as witnesses and planting seeds, but I made it back to Him. My faith has increased a hundred fold since those early days, but I truly believe that one can NEVER have enough faith in God.

In these last days, we need to be concentrating on heeding His Word, Living for Him and increasing our faith in Him. He says Himself that it is impossible to please Him without faith. If we will study His Word ONE of the MOST CONSISTENT things He talks about is having faith.

When things happen that we do not understand the reason, instead of getting all bent out of shape or automatically trying to fix the situation ourselves we should stop, take a breath, say a prayer and ask God what to do. Ask Him to have His way in that situation, then, whatever the outcome accept it, because it will be God's will and will be what is best for us. Even in His Word He says that He will take the bad and make good come from it. (The exact verse is Romans 8:28: And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Therefore, we can rest assured that even if God allows bad things to happen to us they will work together for good to those of us who love God (who live for Him and abide by His Word).

Good Night to All and May God Bless,