Fearless Faith and Awestruck Joy-6 Lessons for Peace filled Patience

Along this journey of life, we all too often want our reward to be visible now. At least that has been true in my case. I take one step of obedience and then, I with great anticipation wait for God to pour forth great visible rewards; as though, I deserved a prize for doing the very thing which love and gratitude demanded after all He had done to purchase my salvation. Why is it that I or we lose sight of the truth so easily and want to believe it is all about today; instead, of just clinging to the truth that God is working out the best plan formulated by His loving hands for me? We tend to look around us and compare our obedience with others—(of course we give ourselves a star for our own performance). When we do that we may see that someone else appears to be being rewarded more and we pout. “Haven’t I been generous, then where are my overflowing baskets?” “I stepped out in faith when you asked me to write, Lord. Why are none of my books best sellers, yet?” It has taken me years to realize, my baskets that are overflowing may never be on this earth—they are awaiting me in heaven and the writing? Oh, yes; I write to God for Him—if one person is helped along this journey or one person is lead to Christ then God has used me with all my faults to display His Glory. That is in itself a humbling act of God’s grace. There was a time that I asked God if we could just skip the lesson on patience because I just was never going to get it; but, He knew that it was a lesson that was necessary for me to live a life overwhelmed by awestruck joy in Him and fearless faith to face the trials of the pilgrimage journey. He never gave up and patiently, gently taught me along the way.

picture used by permission of Ronald Barba the artist.  For information regarding his art go to http://www.barba-art.com

God taught Abraham about patience and through that taught Abram about faith and joy. He called Abram out unto the land—then came famine, fighting with cousin, the large armies, and the barrenness of Sarah—his wife. Abraham, much like us, at times grew impatient and wanted to know “How, Lord are you going to accomplish this and where are the rewards you promised?” Yet, each step of the way; God would reveal just enough of His Glory to refocus Abram’s eyes upon God Himself instead of the circumstances.

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Fearless Faith and Awestruck Joy—4 Truths of Faith, Hope and Joy

As we continue on in our search for the key elements that develop fearless faith and a life filled with joy; it would be of great benefit to us to look a little longer at the life of Abraham. We see in his life moments of great faith such as when he left everything to go to a land he had never seen because God had commanded him. We are also amazed when he went upon the mountaintop to sacrifice his son Isaac, believing that God would raise him from the dead. Instead, God provided a substitutionary sacrifice to take the place of Isaac, a symbolic representation of Christ who would be the substitutionary sacrifice for all who believe and accept the gift of salvation. When we look at these two great acts of faith, we think of Abraham as some superhero of faith.

Yet, if we look at Abraham’s life; we can see that the faith that allowed him to go up on that mountain willing to sacrifice Isaac at God’s command was a faith that had been cultivated and grown step by step. His journey was much like our own. When God first called Abraham out to go to a new land of promise, it is like when we are first called to accept Christ as our Savior. At that point, we become heirs of all of God’s promises. We are called out by grace, much like Abraham.

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