I often hear the phrase, “You’ve gotta’ have faith.” When someone’s having a hard time, they repeat it like a mantra: “You’ve gotta have faith;” or they sing George Michael as they “show their baby the door.”
But with all this talk about faith, what does it really mean?
Faith in what? In love? In yourself? In God?
I would always say that I had faith in God, meaning that I believed he existed. But while I had faith in God, I would bemoan the life he gave me, gripe about my circumstances, and begrudgingly think that this life was just the cross I had to bear. However, this isn’t the picture of faith that Hebrews 11 gives.
Hebrews 11:6 says that it is impossible to please God without faith, and says that whoever comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
I’ve come to the point in my relationship with Jesus that I don’t doubt his existence. Sometimes I don’t understand Him, sometimes I’m even frustrated or angry with the way He allows things to happen or with things I don’t understand about Him. BUT I never doubt that he exists. I thought this was faith, and I thought this was enough–belief that Jesus exists.
BUT, notice the second part of the verse. He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. How many times do we feel like we’re subjecting ourselves to some kind of sad life because we’re following Jesus. “Ok, Jesus, I’ll follow you, even if it means I’ll be miserable.” How many times to we expect to be subjected to a monotonous list of obligations? Oh! But contraire my friends.
Jesus is a REWARDER of those who diligently seek Him. He’s a loving Father who wants to bless us. Now, this doesn’t mean that this life will be easy. The Christian life isn’t going to be butterflies and rainbows. There’s real hurt, real challenges. Anyone who’s known Jesus for even a little bit can tell you that. BUT we can have faith that there is a reward for all of this. In this life and after this life.
In this life, the rewards are harder to see. There are hard times that we’re all going to go through. But we have a relationship with an omnipotent Father who loves us and knows us personally. We’re never alone. We KNOW that all things work together for good, and that He will withhold no good thing from those who walk uprightly. Even when we don’t understand his ways–even when we go through trials. We can have FAITH that he is a rewarder of those who are seeking Him. We can have faith that somehow, Jesus is growing us through our hardships. He is using our lives, he is making us stronger, and he is working all things together for good. And when the rewards of this life are hard to see, when the tribulations of this world bring you down, we can remember:
In this world, we will have trials and tribulations, but TAKE HEART, for he has OVERCOME the world! -John 16:33
And after this life: We will live forever with the one who loves us, with the one who died for us, with the one who knows us fully and completely and loves us just the same. We will be in a place with no more tears, no more pain. “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. (Rev. 21:4)”
So take heart! Your fight is not in vain. And when you’re feeling down, when you’re upset, just remember: YOU’VE GOTTA’ HAVE FAITH.
__________
You can follow me on twitter @bekahvalencia. Thanks for reading!
Rebekah in Real Life 