Frustrating faith

"Trust him! He can do it!" How many times have we heard those phrases, and turned again to implore God? 

We cry out, desperate for relief, whether physical, emotional, financial, or otherwise. "Lord of lords, please do something! You know what we need, and our confidence and anticipation is in you." 

Our prayers rise continually, our knees and hearts become callused, and our souls feel weary with pleading. Though fellow believers join us in a habit of prayer, there is no reprieve. The pain remains. The years of distress intensify. Our knees begin to buckle under the brutality of life's burdens. 

Is this the time to give up? Is this the season to give in and throw away hope? Darkness envelopes us as we grope our way through the valley of the shadow of death.

"Where can we go? Only you have words of eternal life," Peter acknowledged. 

We find no alternative to our prayers. What sacrifices to gods, universal karma, or spirit beings can bring relief? None. Alone among the gods, only our Creator loved humanity enough to be bruised and crushed. He hung bleeding, dying to bring salvation and healing to his people.

Our trust and discouragement mix into the holy incense of worship. We understand that our God can intervene with his supernatural power. Only he is able to change days and nights of agony into hymns of praise and loud thanksgiving. 

True faith is substance, not guesswork. We believe with confidence, not on shaky ground. Our fears and futures mingle into the smoking cauldron of prayers that arise to God. We offer ourselves and our needs, agreeing with milllenia of fellow saints who persevered through trials and midnights of the soul. 

Today, let's trust God to hear and answer. His has never reneged on his promise to do more on our behalf than we could ask or think.

Read more:

*Blessed be the LORD who has given rest to his people Israel, according to all that he promised. Not one word has failed of all his good promise, which he spoke by Moses his servant. 1 Kings 8:56 NLT 

*Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:1-2 NIV

*Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:16 NLT

*Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.  For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. Hebrews 11:1-3 NKJV