This week I have found myself thinking a lot about my Dad, who is with the Lord.
As God is talking to me about hope and expectations, my mind drifted back to the days that I would go and pray with my Dad after he was diagnosed with cancer.
I often think of his response on the days that I would visit with him, talk with him and pray with him. I would say, ‘Daddy, God still heals today and if you can believe, he will heal your body.’ Daddy said always respond… ‘I sure hope so honey.’
When he said those words the first time, my heart dropped. I could hear in his words that there was absolutely no faith. He didn’t believe for a second that God would heal him, he was simply trying to agree with me.
There is a huge difference in hoping something will happen and having faith.
I love what the word of God says about Abraham…he hoped against hope. Meaning when there was absolutely no reason for hope, he hoped anyway. When his body couldn’t produce the promise, when he was too old to have children and he knew it, he hoped anyway. When he knew it was impossible for the promise from God to come to pass… he believed anyway. That, my friend, is faith. He believed the promise despite what he could see and feel in the natural.
I see the same kind of ‘hope’ my Dad had daily in some of the emails and calls I receive. The ‘I sure hope so’ hope. That kind of hope will produce nothing.
James 1:6-7 says; ‘But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;’
Faith that wavers isn’t the faith we need to have. Faith that wavers, as it says in the above scripture, will receive nothing from the Lord.
How do you know your faith is wavering, you may ask? I can tell you. You will find true faith or wavering faith in the words that come out of your mouth.
If you read a word from God and say ‘I have read about this breakthrough stuff repeatedly but it never happens.’ That is doubt and unbelief. That is wavering.
If you say ‘I have tried tithing and giving and it didn’t work for me.’ That is again, doubt and unbelief – that is wavering faith.
Remember, faith believes when there is absolutely no way in the natural it could happen. That is real faith – trusting the word of God and the promises of God when everything else is looking like it is going the opposite way. True faith stands strong. True faith refuses, absolutely refuses to speak anything negative or anything against the word of God or the promise of God.
I can’t tell you how many times in my life I have had to be silent until I could say what God says and what His word says. There are times that doubt is trying so hard to get into my head that I refuse to speak and turn on praise music and simply dance before the Lord until the enemy gives up and goes away. This is what we must do to keep ourselves in faith.
Faith is the substance of what we are believing for. Faith will produce whatever God has promised you. Faith is that powerful.
Today, I want you to examine your heart. Are you in faith or in ‘I sure hope so?’ If you find your faith has holes in it, it’s an easy fix. Get in the word of God and spend time in his presence and in his promises. Your faith will soar and you will find yourself like Abraham, fully persuaded that God will do exactly what he promised.
