Friday, March 1, 2013

Stay in Faith

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of [them], and embraced [them], and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Hebrews 11:13.

Hebrews 11 gives us the "Hall of Faith," which is a listing of the patriarchs of the Bible who stood firm in their belief in God's promises, despite the circumstances. They are described as a great cloud of witnesses whose testimonies are an encouragement to us to keep believing and to hold fast to our confession of faith regardless of the pressures coming against us. All of them died believing for the promised heavenly Jersualem, expecting to see manifestation in their lifetimes, and yet they did not. This is a picture of faith. Faith continues to believe no matter how long it takes for the results to come. Faith remains expectant and sure of the truth no matter what life throws our way.

Have you ever heard someone say they prayed for something, let's say healing perhaps or provision, and the answer/result didn't happen overnight, or even in a week, a month, or even a year? It's happened to all of us. We may get mad at God or perhaps look inwardly, thinking we may have done something displeasing to Him. We may believe it isn't His will to bless us. We may feel abandoned and alone, unloved. We may say, "I believed, I had faith, but it didn't happen. No one believed harder than I did! My prayers didn't work!" All of us have had these thoughts run through our mind at some point.

But the truth is that prayer does work. It's just that the answer may take a little longer than we hoped. But that certainly is no reason to give up on faith. Faith believes all the way to the end, expecting manifestation at any moment. Imagine if Abraham had given up on his faith after the first year he prayed for Isaac? The Bible said it took about 20 years for Sarah to give birth to him! That's a long time. Joseph waited 23 years before his God-given dream came to fruition, and his brothers and father bowed before him as the Viceroy of Egypt. David waited about 14 years after being anointed King of Israel before he took the crown and ruled from Jerusalem. What if he had given up after a month? What if he had said it was all a lie?

Don't give up! Don't stop believing! Even if you go all the way to heaven and meet Jesus on the other side of life without seeing the manifestation of your prayers, go believing. Go with faith! You are in good company if you decide to be a person of steadfast faith regardless of the circumstances. God is pleased with His children believing in His promises, no matter what. Yes, the answer may be slow coming, but it's coming! At the appointed time, He will manifest His promises.