Just some early morning thoughts from me to you…
“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”
Hebrews 11:1 (NIV)
With Lynda’s illness and treatments this summer, I wasn’t able to spend time this year as I usually do with my dear friends with the Colorado Rockies Baseball Club in Denver. The baseball games at beautiful Coors Field are always great to watch, but the real joy is being with my friends introduced to me years ago by a mutual friend, Keli McGregor, the President of the Rockies’ ball club.
Keli is no longer with us, in person that is, but everything good about him remains, especially his unbridled hope and belief in all that God would, could and wanted to do in the lives of His children. His faith and hope was contagious, encouraging and pointed everyone toward believing in all the possibility of their lives.
It’s a lot like the Apostle Paul’s encouragement in his letter to the Ephesians, which always seems to be an appropriate follow-up to the verse from the writer of Hebrews above. From the man who endured much for the hope he held in his heart, Paul shares this message for a good start to all of our mornings—
“Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 3: 13b-14 (NIV)
As our days begin, do we have that kind of faith even though we can’t see our tomorrows coming around the bend? A faith that causes us to “press on” in the face of disappointments, setbacks and heartaches, embracing all that can be.
A faith that causes us to endure with confidence, not bitterness, with joy and belief, not anxiety or doubt. I wonder if we have that kind of faith that urges us to press on in the face of doubt and doubters, waning resources and tough times, believing that the vision God laid before us was really His and that He will continue to bring it all about.
It’s a tenacious faith that causes us to press on in the face of all that tries to throw us off course, confronted with all the distractions of doubt and criticism, expectations, heartaches, failures, and disappointments that will surely litter the path along our way. A faith which equips and readies us to press on through the uncertainty which always comes around the bend.
I don’t know what you’re facing as the day opens and the week unfolds before you—sometimes faster than your grip. Perhaps you’ve lost a job, or a family member has an illness that will affect their future, a relationship has taken a detour you never saw coming, or you just don’t seem to know what the rest of your days will or should look like.
May I be so bold as to suggest that you embrace for all of that and more, the faith to which the writer of Hebrews calls us?
The faith that blows through our lives with the fresh winds of hope when we least expect it, reminding us again that the God of it all is still in charge, has never left us, and is tapping on our shoulder reminding us that He still has much for us to do—for Him and for others.
It’s a faith that will carry us through all of our days, into the Hope of all of our tomorrows, and always alongside the God of all eternity.
In His Name–Scott
