‘Be strong and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for and hope for and expect the Lord!’
– Psalm 31:24
The Psalm says be courageous, stay strong and have hope in God. This sounds easy when looking at the text or reading about the many heroes of faith in Hebrews 11. Faith is essential according to Hebrews 11:6, but far from easy: ‘Without faith it is impossible to please and be satisfactory to Him. For whoever would come near to God must (necessarily) believe that God exists and that He is the rewarder of those who earnestly and diligently seek Him (out).’
In our every day and during times of difficulty, it is all too easy to waiver. When prayers aren’t answered, and justice isn’t seen. When family and friends aren’t anywhere near to finding Jesus. When once again you get overlooked for a well-deserved promotion. It is during these times that our faith can stand or fall. We can choose to believe that Jesus knows all and has it in hand, or we can become disappointed, angry, even bitter. When we lose faith, we begin to mould Jesus to our experience rather than our expectation based on what He said and who He is. We may be able to recite Romans 8:28 by heart but in our disappointment, it becomes words we have faith in for others. But for us, we can pack them up and put them away in a box.
Faith takes a huge amount of courage. It is what we need to get to the end of the race we are given to run. Faith, according to Hebrews 11:1 ‘is the assurance of things hoped for, and conviction of things not seen’. But it is so easy to get distracted by all that is going on around us. We are easily hurt by those we care about. We are let down by church leaders and Christian friends. We spend too long lingering in the present rather than His presence.
All these situations and experiences are valid, and they happen. But we need to remind ourselves of how, at the very beginning of our faith journey, we believed the story and fell in love with a man who died 2000 years ago. We do believe in the invisible God, and the unseen but tangible Holy Spirit. Then, we can renew hope to walk in faith each day despite the distractions. Just like working out at the gym or going on a run, we get stronger spending time with Jesus. When we linger and spend time in conversation with Him, we find the courage to continue and finish the race (Hebrews 12:1-2).
The past 24 months have been both painful and joyful, exhausting and exhilarating. I have learned to press in and hold on. Not trusting my emotion on any given day as the next it could be very different. I’ve been frustrated and angry. I’ve been absolutely perplexed and befuddled. But most of all I’ve been grateful and thankful. Jesus has taken me higher and deeper and hasn’t let my faith journey end in a damp squib of disillusionment. As we all know from the past few years, life is precious, and short. Loving people means telling them the truth and living a lifestyle of genuine faith, letting people see the good, the bad, and the ugly. Then they see the incredible GRACE of God over our lives. That’s what takes strength and courage, to live out faith in authenticity, not wearing a mask or striving for unattainable perfection. I’ve not finished yet, but with courage and His strength, I will finish my race in faith.
Feature photo by Alex Shute on Unsplash
