AFRICAN SUMMER - ON FAITH - PART 2

I wonder how much dwelling I have been doing? Maybe dwelling is the key to having a faith that is unhindered by logic and reason? It seems I have a faith that is walled in by my understanding of what is possible and impossible. I have a faith that is marred by a human capacity to understand. Looking in to David’s request I found that David truly wanted to hang out with God. The translation I read this from says that David wanted to dwell in the house of the Lord for a particular reason. I love the way he depicted His request. Dwell in the house. What does this really mean to dwell and furthermore to dwell in a house?

I like thinking of God just hanging out in His house, a house that is quite comfortable and easy to relax in and just lounge around. I like thinking that God has extended an informal invitation to me saying, hey son anytime you want why don’t you come and hang out with me at the house, we will sit around, get a couple drinks, talk, laugh and really get to know each other. David desired to dwell in the presence of God because He knew that God was for Him, that God’s house was a safe place to be in all the adversity of life.

I began to think on this concept of dwelling in God’s house and how in the world it applied to me and my faith, and my belief in God. Here is what I began to process. When one faces a circumstance in life that requires that individual to trust, believe and frankly exercise faith in God He has a decision to make. He can use his own logic and reason to assess the situation. He can look at the situation before him and say well according to my understanding of all the possible outcomes of this situation the one desired is quite impossible. His logic and reason has instantly killed his opportunity to truly exercise a faith unhindered by his human capacity of knowing what is possible or not. The other decision He can make is to believe that God, even in the impossibleness of the situation will come through because He is God and He is not bound by those laws that deny humanity of what can be done and not done. He can choose to have a walk on water faith that says yes Jesus I can walk on water if you ask me to come out on the water with you. Or that says yes Jesus all things are possible for you! You know what, I long to have a faith unhindered by that question in the back of my mind that says, can He really do that or is that really possible?

Here is what it comes down to, maybe it is not a question of how much faith can you muster up, as much as it is where are you spending your time? All to often we spend our time in the physical, in a place where we cannot see past what is before us, where we cannot trust in anything other than what we have control and power over. Yet, we have been invited into a secret place to dwell in a place where the one with the power to do the impossible is accessible and waiting to be displayed. When we spend much of our time away from the place that God dwells, that place where impossibility collides with possibility, that house that He has invited us to come in and dwell with Him, to gaze upon His beauty and splendor, how much harder is it for us to believe in a God that is not bound by impossibility, a God that can raise one from the finality of death or restore a soul made so ugly by sin into a beautiful masterpiece? It is when we familiarize our self with that place and the one who dwells in that place that we look upon the impossible circumstances and situations in life and say you know what I dwell in the presence of the one who can do the impossible so all things are indeed possible. No I don’t own that power but it is He who I dwell with the one that has the power to do the impossible.

With that said, the place you choose to dwell can greatly affect how you look at life and its circumstances. It will greatly affect how you trust, how you believe, it will greatly affect the faith you display. Is your faith in your own power, or is it in the power of God. We have a tendency to rely on what we are familiar with…we have a tendency to rely on what we can control. I want faith that looks at a mountain and says move. I want a faith that says ok Jesus I’ll come out and walk with you on the water in this storm. I want a faith that looks impossibility in the eyes and says with my God all things are possible. I want a faith where even as crazy as it may seem that for some reason it just makes sense because of where I have chosen to dwell and who I have chosen to dwell with.

It is difficult to put your trust in a person that you have no clue who they are or what they are about. Why would you? When we choose to come in and dwell in God’s house and hang out with Him there will be a certain level of trust that develops because we come to know Him, His heart, His power. You will look to your Father as a child and with that same child like faith know that He will come through. It won’t even cross your mind that He won’t. This is what Jesus meant when He said that we must enter the Kingdom of Heaven as small children. Only a child can enter into the kingdom. This is faith like a child. I want that. I want to be the kid that jumps off the top of that house into his dads arms below not even hesitating whether he will catch me or not.

What is a prayer without faith? It is lifeless and dead. James speaking of asking God says “But let him ask in faith without doubting. For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind.” I don’t want to doubt what seems impossible to me just because I cannot control the situation. Faith is about letting go. How hard it is to do this letting go and trusting that God is bigger and is in control.