Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Setting Into Motion

“Faith is deliberate confidence in the character of God whose ways you may not understand at the time.” ~ by Oswald Chambers ~




Just as Oswald Chambers said faith indeed is an unhurried, slow, carefully thought out confidence in the Lord and His character. It begins with the knowledge of God and grows with experience as we spend more and more time with the Lord.


Our level of faith in God should never be tied to how well we understand what He does. Understanding and faith should never be required to fly together. We need to release the one from the other. We may never understand what God is doing but it should never stop us from having the kind of deliberate faith in Him we need to have. The more we’re around God the greater our level of faith will become in spite of whether the intensity of our understanding grows or not.


This is why the wise Solomon told us in Proverbs 3:5,6 to trust in the Lord and lean not on your own understanding. If you think about it we would never move ahead in life if we waited for understanding to arrive to take us forward. We need to accept the fact that it’s not for us to understand God’s ways. Some days we will, some moments we won’t and we need to be okay with that.


I would still be an epileptic to this day if I tried to understand why I had to be that way, why was I chosen, why did I have to deal with these out of controlled seizures. The stress of racking my brain for answers to my questions of why only would have created more stress seizures. My job wasn’t to find the understanding to the why but to set in motion my faith in God to see me through. Same with the diagnosis of cancer I carry today. It’s natural for the “why” word to come up but it should be just as natural for us to quickly bury it. Bury it not under the blanket of denial or fear but under the cover of having deliberate confident faith in God.


Yes indeed intentional, premeditated, conscious assurance in the character of God needs to be our walking stick to keep us moving. As God set into motion the rotation of the earth around the sun, the waves in the oceans, and the wind through the trees which continue without ceasing, (especially the wind, according to my mom here in Central Oregon. Right mom?) we need to set into motion our faith in God. When done confidently without leaning on our own understanding it too will continue on for all eternity. Praise the Lord!


© 2010 Karen J Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

4 comments:

Miriam Pauline said...

intentional, premeditated, conscious assurance in the character of God needs to be our walking stick to keep us moving I love this! Thank you for the reminder of what should keep me going. Too often I dwell in the "whys" instead of WHO. Hugs my dear.

Marsha Young said...

Karen - I like the analogy that our confident assurance in God's character can be "our walking stick" to keep us moving in the right direction.

Still keeping you in prayer. Marsha Y. at Spots and Wrinkles

Tami said...

we would never move ahead in life if we waited for understanding to arrive to take us forward

Isn't that the truth?! I rarely understand. I would go no where! Thanks for pointing that out Karen.

janet said...

Yes indeed intentional, premeditated, conscious assurance in the character of God needs to be our walking stick to keep us moving.

Such wise words! :o)