Living in Expectant Faith
Have you ever noticed that many of our greatest opportunities come gift wrapped as a problem? Maybe you have heard the saying “Fear knocked, Faith answered, and no one was there. But how do you clothe yourself in faith? How do we find peace in the midst of uncertainty and courage to believe that greater days lie ahead.
We are learning how to walk this out at Jericho Road, and just as the cross shows us, we cannot do it alone. We need both Jesus and relationships to walk out this life we have been given. Trusting God, experiencing His peace and relying on the strength of His Spirit in us increases, as we see ourselves as our Father sees us.
King David put it this way “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God”. (Psalm 20:7) Jesus assures us in His words we are not alone in this journey “I am leaving you with a gift- peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So, do not be troubled or afraid." (John 14:27) Peace is an open door to knowing your identity and discovering your dreams. God has promised he will never leave nor forsake you.
We are called to have expectant faith. This requires that we trust in the Father. When fear is ruling our lives, it is because we are not trusting the Father. Many times, in our life’s things happen that set up wrong mindsets and we hold them as truth. Our feelings and our experiences become our truth that we guide our lives by, sometimes knowingly sometimes unknowingly.
The word of God says that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and we are not called to confusion, but rather we are given a sound mind and clarity, by the Father himself. It is the Father who reveals and releases our true identity. In these days we are facing, it is easy to lose hold of the truth of our identity. No matter our age, vocation, gender, race or culture we live in the fact is life is difficult to maneuver for everyone. Every part of our lives has been shaken up. The enemy would like us to think that we are the only one’s suffering, that no one cares. He would like us to believe that we have to stand up for our rights and that each man can decide for himself what is right. He would like us to become distracted and forget the assignment God has given us.
The book of Ephesians reminds us who we are as adopted children of God. Our identity secure and chosen. Paul reminds us and prays for us that the eyes of our hearts would be enlightened that we would know the bigness of God. In Chapter 6 after he has reminded us of our secure identity in Christ, he begins his letter with “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might” ... and proceeds to address the need to put on the full armour of God to protect us from the real enemy. God is asking us in this season to lay down our earthly weapons that do not work and take up some weapons that will actually have benefits in our lives. So, this word in Ephesians “Be Strong in the Lord” means to be filled with inherent, active, achieving power. And because we’re Strong “in the Lord,” we have the same kind of power He has. This is good news for we, who have no hope of standing in the onslaught of the things coming against us in this season of Covid on our own, can now do “all things”, in Him, because His strength is “in us”.
Charlotte S.