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)
It was another beautiful morning as I drove to the airport in Denver last week to return home after a visit with my dear friends at the Rockies baseball club. Cool breezes, blue skies, low humidity and wonderful memory-making moments in the books once again.
The baseball games at beautiful Coors Field are always great to watch, but only when enjoyed with my dear friends. The game the night before was picture perfect for baseball, as I visited with my friends, made a new friend, George, and remembered a mutual friend, Keli, who was the catalyst introducing us many years ago.
Keli is no longer with us, face-to-face that is, but everything good about him remains, especially his unbridled hope and belief in all that God would do, could do, and wanted to do in the lives of His children. His faith and hope was contagious, encouraging and left everyone around him filled with a sense of belief in the possibility of what they hoped would occur.
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 for the 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 what is coming around the bend of our tomorrows? A faith that causes us to “press on” in the face of disappointments, setbacks and heartaches, by continuing to embrace what we hope for. The kind of faith which causes us to focus our hearts on the goal which God has called us to—while trying to find our purpose in life—with a certainty of heart that says “Thy will be done.”
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 causes 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.
And all that He asks us to do is to believe, needing simply only to have the faith to press on, and at times maybe to simply hang on to the hem of His robe for dear life as He leads us into the future He has set before us.
It’s a tenacious faith that causes us to press on in the face of all that is before us, and all that happens that tries to throw us off course, confronted with all the distractions of doubt and criticism, expectations, and all the heartaches, failures, and disappointments that will surely litter the path along our way, along with all the uncertainty which will come around the bend. We need that kind of faith to press on today and every day.
I don’t know what you’re facing as day opens before you 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 should look like. May I be so bold as to suggest that you embrace for your life the faith to which the writer of Hebrews calls us?
It’s 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 with the God of all eternity.
In His Name—Scott
Copyright 2016. Scott L. Whitaker. All rights reserved.
