Faith’s Workstation

You know faith is a tricky thing. It is constantly under attack, and if you’re not careful, you will lose your faith out of simple weariness from constant grief. Life has a way of making you think that some things are just not worth the trouble. One answer to life’s tribulations, if not the answer, is to quit simply. You can quit your job. You can end a relationship. You can simply not come around anymore in those situations where coming around is reminiscent of an unpleasant experience. But in the question of faith, there seems to be a concrete solution to any and all that ails us. It’s called work. By work, I mean work in the name of the Lord. How often have you gotten yourself out of the doldrums because you helped someone else? How often have you been able to be genuinely thankful for what you have because God has shown you that it could be much worse? 

Like I said, this faith thing can be tricky. When does it kick in that now is the time, now is the test, now comes temptation that challenges your faith? There are no road maps that I can see that say Faith Test Ahead. More often than not, we certainly recognize a faith red light or stop sign only after we’ve run through it. I guess I should take some solace in the fact that I at least had a chance to practice my faith yesterday, two weeks ago, or a few minutes ago. But it doesn’t make me feel any better knowing I should have handled a particular situation better than I did. I still botched the opportunity to practice what I preach, to talk the talk and walk the walk. That’s the tricky part. At the end of the day, a review will show you dozens of chances to forgive, witness, profess, help, and serve. At the end of the day, you’ve run stop sign after stop sign, red light after red light.

But as we all know, God is more than a God of a second chance. He is a God of another chance. You get another crack at it because you’re still alive, and the opportunities to serve are multiplied daily. If you missed it this morning, don’t worry. You’ll have another opportunity to try again this afternoon. The faith struggle is remedied by what you do as a result of knowing you can always do more. You can always do better. Real faith mandates a change

in you. You can’t do the same things, in the same way with the same people, once you accept Jesus into your life. Therefore, even though you might make the same mistakes, you realize and accept them as mistakes. Now what?

“So watch yourself. If your brother sins, rebuke him; if he repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in a day and comes back to you seven times and says, ‘I repent,’ forgive him. The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith.’” Luke 17:3-5.Do you know how hard that is? Increase your faith by forgiving those who repeatedly come against you. So, the dutiful response to the turmoil of this earth is to act upon your faith as a member of a family whose center is not of this earth. Can you spell tricky? To work, you have to be rooted in the Word. You can understand the rules. You must know when the rules have been broken and try in earnest never to break them intentionally. You know the routine. We walk by faith and not by sight. The deed is the thing. The intent is to act on your faith. Forgive and serve. Now that’s spreading the Word. That’s working. It’s the work, stupid. Remember that it’s not the stop sign you run through that’s the issue. It’s the one you see clearly that will make the difference.The more you see. The more you stop. The more you stop, the more you serve.

May God bless and keep you always.

This column is from “Spiritually Speaking: Reflections for and from a New Christian” by James Washington. You can purchase this enlightening book on Amazon and start your journey towards spiritual enlightenment.

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