How Important is Your Faith?

by Pastor Jess Foglesong

My wife and I went to the shopping center last week, and as usual she wanted me to park the car as close as I could to the store entrance.  I drove up and luckily there was one spot near the entrance, although it would have been a tight squeeze, I knew I was going to have to make a precarious left turn between two cars.  So carefully I swung around and got the car in the space without a hitch.  Right away my wife said: "I would have never gotten this car in as easy as that." And I said, "faith!"

Actually, through years of experience and knowledge, we all acquire “faith” in most of the things we do.  Certainly, we all need faith in how, and the way we drive. And as I emplied: it is acquired.  Where as, a new driver, or a nervous driver, may not.

We have faith in everything we do.  We all have faith in our relationships – that they will last many years.  We have faith that the food we buy is safe to consume.  We have faith that when we fly, the plane is well maintained and that the pilot well trained.  We have faith that the sun will rise every morning; and of course - as believers - faith that God will lead us home to the glory of a new Kingdom.

Faith … is so important, in the belief of a Creator, of an All-Supreme Ruler!  A God of the universe; a God of all that we see around us.  Faith that He is who He is!  That He is out there! That He is actively managing this earth and universe.

For many of us, it is faith that keeps us going – no matter what.  No matter how bad.  No matter how gloom and doom things become.  It is faith that keeps us moving forward.  Some say it is faith in one self.  Some say it is faith in something greater than one self.  Either way, it is faith that is the catalyst; that connects the blank spots, the unknowns in all of our daily activities, and life in general.

Faith comes into play in many situations:  accident victims, who are disabled or disfigured; cancer patients, who are terminal or have to endure extensive therapy; loss of a family member or close loved one or friend -- all require a certain degree of faith, in-order to go on.

And where does faith come from?  Well it’s not a mystery!  It’s part of our design, our make up. God instilled faith in all of us; so we can face the insurmountable odds; the bad days; the lows; the valleys.

It is a gift from God that helps us be stable through the real tuff times.  It is reassurance, confidence of something unseen, but know that is absolute.  That what we know and understand is for real, and worthwhile.  It is a belief that life is basically good.  That our entire existence was formed and created by something much greater: by God.  That He is worth it; that what He says is real and true.  That to have “faith” in his word is all that we have.  Knowing that what we have in this world will pass, and we will be called to a more complete and meaningful world.  With our true father in heaven: Yahweh, God of the universe. 

Faith is Trust!