Faith

I used to wonder how my faith in the Lord compared to other people's...not that it mattered. I know God doesn't love certain people more just because they have a stronger faith in Him than others, but the thought crossed my mind that God is really the only One who knows our level of faith. WE don't really even know it, since we have nothing to compare it to. Does that make sense?

I often think about what it means to have "child-like faith." Believing that He can perform miracles...He can heal a blind man, and instantaneously cure cancer, and handle my situation.

Sure He can do all those things.

I had 100% faith that He was capable of all of these.

It wasn't until He said to me, "Trust me with this," that it hit me...it's not about believing that He can do all of this...it's believing that He will.

There is such a difference in these two ideas, and I didn't realize how little faith I had in believing He WILL take care of everything until He told me to let Him do so.

This means not worrying...

Not trying to work out every detail myself to make sure it's taken care of (this is not easy for me!)...

Not questioning what He told me. If He told me something, then it's so.
Imagine you have a child that, at age sixteen, comes to you and says, "If it's possible, can you buy me a car?" Your answer to them is, "Yes, I will buy you the car."
After that, imagine that they kept coming to you saying the same thing, "Please, can you buy me the car????" Eventually, I would want to smack them upside the head and say, "I told you that I would buy you the car! Stop worrying and let me work out the details in doing so!"

Get what I'm saying?

The Lord clearly answered "yes" to our request, yet because it hadn't actually happened yet, I kept asking for it. He is such a gracious God though, and thankfully, instead of reprimanding me for constantly asking Him, He kept reassuring me that I heard Him correctly, and showed me ways He was already working out details that I thought I'd have to worry about. One way He spoke to me and reminded me that I heard correctly was by reminding me of Hebrews 11:1.
"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." (NIV Version)

So I'm at the point now where I've started thanking Him that He said yes. Even though He hasn't "proven Himself" yet and showed me that it's true, why does He need to?

He is God. The Creator of everything.

I can trust that His yes means 'yes,' and His no means 'no.' He also reminded me of this through James 1:17, which says
"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning." (NKJV) (Emphasis added by me.)

So once again, I will say, "Thank you Lord for what's to come!"