In faith

I started my time with God today praying for my children - their development, their well-being, the direction of their lives. I want to see God's purpose for them be fulfilled in them. As their mother, at the relative beginning of this journey to raise them, shape them, teach them and direct them, I see before me a long path full of unknowns and uncertainties, full of possibilities - both good and bad. And I stand here feeling inadequate. How could I ever protect them from all of the bad choices they could possibly make, from all of the hurtful things people will inevitably say and do? So I lift them up to God, because while I am wholly inadequate, He is not. So I laid it all out before Him and I choose to trust Him and stand on what I know to be true.

I finished my prayer time and opened my Bible. It happened to open to Luke 1, where the story of Zacharias caught my attention. God promised him a son, though he and his wife were older, and his wife, Elizabeth, was barren. Shortly after, their son, John, was born, and was set apart to be a great man of God.

• Luke 1:37 - For with God nothing is ever impossible and no word from God shall be without power or impossible of fulfillment.

A few verses after that, this same Elizabeth says this about Mary, the mother of Jesus:

• Blessed (happy, to be envied) is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of the things that were spoken to her from the Lord.

And at this time in my life, at the beginning of a long journey - a journey in which I, in reality, have relatively little control, I need this. This shows me a truth about the character of God - one that I can specifically point to in the scripture and stand on in times of doubt. Whatever God says is possible of fulfillment. His ultimate reward is bestowed upon those who truly believe that what He says is true and that what He says will come to pass. There is nothing but truth and power in His word. But this level of faith is required for what He says to fully come to be in my life. Only with this level of faith am I laying my own methods aside and opening my life up fully for Him to work. If I do this, I am assured that what He has spoken will BE.

• Hebrews 11:1 - NOW FAITH is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses].

Faith is Assurance, Confirmation. It is my title deed to God's promises. It gives me an ownership of them, just as a title to my van declares that my van belongs to me. It is the certainty that His promises are reality in my life, even though I cannot yet see them. Faith sees the truth before it is revealed to the senses. What do I have without faith? No assurance. No confirmation. No ownership. No certainty. I have nothing. Faith is vital.

In the past 3 years alone, I've seen evidence (revealed to the senses) of the truth of several things I've believed for in faith. Things that God has promised, either through His word or spoken directly to my heart, have come about in my life. I've seen it work. I must trust that it will work again in the lives of my children, and in all other promises that God sends my way.