Have you ever pinned all your hopes and dreams on one thing, only to be disappointed when something went wrong? If we live only according to our five senses, the only guarantee we have is that life gives no guarantees. People can let us down, plans can get derailed, and our expectations of how something should happen can be crushed. When our whole world seems to crumble around us, faith in God’s promises may be the only thing that keeps us going.
Faith is defined as complete trust or confidence in someone or something. It’s risky trusting the empty promises we can hear from others. However, we can trust God’s guarantee that He’ll never leave us when we need Him. “…For He [God] Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let [you] down (relax My hold on you)! [Assuredly not!]” Hebrews 13:5, AMPC). We can be confident that His faithfulness toward us will never fail, even when our own faith is weak and wobbly.
When we can’t seem to bounce back after being hurt, God gives us the strength we need to move forward. Spending time with Him gives us joy that, although we may not understand it intellectually, is nevertheless real. “…Neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10). This joy springs not from how we feel at the moment, but from what we know about God’s nature. If we put our faith in money, our hopes can be dashed. Wealth is simply a tool, but is notoriously untrustworthy and has the potential to disappear quickly. Putting it first can rob us of peace of mind and result in financial resources slipping through our fingers. Putting God first gives us what we need. “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).
God has prepared an awesome life for us; we move into it by putting one foot in front of the other and continuing to go forward on our Christian journey. When trouble shows up, refusing to operate in faith traps us in our present situation like quicksand. However, trusting Him keeps us going in the right direction, even when the situation gets ugly. “For we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7).
The world operates in the natural, and insists on seeing, touching, tasting, or smelling before believing. Faith is something most people don’t understand, because it can’t be seen or felt. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report” (Hebrews 11:1, 2). When we see no tangible results yet, our trust moves us into a position to receive God’s promises.
We’re bound to encounter adversity eventually. In the worst of times, it’s not the size of our faith that counts, but our willingness to consistently employ it and our refusal to be moved from standing on the promises. “And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith. And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you” (Luke 17:5, 6). Trust like this carries great power.