What is faith?
Pastor, what is Faith? Faith is trusting God in spite of the circumstances! Anybody ever been in some difficult circumstances and you didn’t know how you were going to make it through the circumstances? You didn’t know how you were going to survive the circumstance, but you just trusted God in the middle of the circumstances and God proved He was able to keep you right in the middle of your circumstances. I often hear people ask the question of one another, “How are you doing?” And the person responds with, “I’m doing fine under the circumstances.” Well, believers aren’t supposed to be under the circumstances, but rather on top of the circumstances! Trusting God will keep you in spite of the circumstances. That’s what Faith is! Faith is also obeying God in spite of the consequences.
You might think, “If I obey God I might lose my job; if I obey God I might lose my friends or if I obey God they may laugh at me.” Be that as it may, I’d rather have Jesus than silver and gold! I’d rather be by myself with the Lord than be without the Lord and have somebody else. So Faith is obeying God in spite of the consequences. This is what Faith does.
Each one of the honorees from the Hall of Faith that ran their particular race will tell you that it got difficult for them to run their race, but they kept on running! And they kept on running until they won the race. Now, these runners are in heaven. They are among a great cloud of witnesses and they are cheering us on saying that if they could their race in difficult times, then you can run your race. Each one of these runners is supposed to inspire us.
For example, the next time you feel like you want to quit the race because you have lost everything; your money, your health, your family…, here comes Job who stands up in the Hall of Faith and says, “Oh yes, you can make it! I know what you are going through. I know what it means to lose everything! But I kept on going to church. When my wife told me to curse God and die, I told her ‘the Lord gives and the Lord taketh away.’ Bless it be the name of the Lord.” Job says he lost everything in the first two chapters, but if you go to the end of the book in the 42nd chapter, you will see that God gave him twice as much of what he lost. Job says to stay in the race because the Lord will restore you.
The next time you feel as though you have been treated unfairly and you want to drop out of the race, Joseph stands up and says, “I know what it’s like to be treated unfairly. My own brothers hated me so much they sold me into slavery. Furthermore, Mrs. Potiphar lied and smeared my name. I was listed as a sex offender all because she lied about and said I tried to rape her. I served time in prison and while there, I helped other people out but when they got up and out, they forgot about me. So I know what it’s like to be treated unfairly. But one day the King had a dream in which no one could interpret. So they brought me to him from my prison cell and I interpreted the dream for him. Then I went from the ‘prison’ to the ‘palace.’ I went from being Prisoner #2998 to become Prime Minister of Agriculture in Egypt.
The next time you feel like God is taking too long to answer a prayer that you have been praying where you see no manifestation of what you are believing God for and people are calling you crazy for trusting God for something that doesn’t seem like it is ever going to happen, remember Abraham. Abraham, from the Hall of Faith,stands up and says, “You need to stay in the race because God promised me He was going to give me a son. I waited and waited and I waited, but no son came! But one day my wife, who was ninety years old, was told by her gynecologist that she was pregnant.”
Hall of Faith
All I’m trying to tell you is that these persons in the Hall of Faith are suppose to inspire us. So the next time you feel like you are under pressure as a leader and you want to give up, remember Moses. Moses stands up and admonishes us not to give up.
He said, “I know what it’s like to lead folk and it gets difficult and no one appreciates you. You take them across the Red Sea and they’re mad. They get hungry and I get them manna to eat and they are still mad. They get thirsty and I’m able to get water to come out of a rock, yet they’re still mad. But I rise to tell you, Stay in the race!” Listen, some of you had a mother, a grandmother, a father or grandfather who told you when they were going through difficult times they made it! They told you that if you just trust and never doubt, the Lord would surely bring you out! The Lord will see you through!
I wonder if there’s anybody reading this who has looked at somebody else’s life who had a difficult race but yet they kept on running! Maybe someone had cancer but kept on running. Perhaps they lost their job but kept on running. Perhaps they lost their home but kept on running. They kept on singing, they kept on serving, and they kept on doing it by faith! When you really have faith, faith won’t let you stop! Faith will keep you in the race. Faith will hold you up. The same people who did it back then are saying you can make it now. Some of the things that will make us give up on God in our day are so small compared to what our mothers’ and fathers’ had to endure. And all they did was trust God!
Here is what I know. Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever! And the same God that got them through by faith is the same God that will get us through. Big Mama told me “He may not come when you want Him, but when He gets there, He’s right on time!” She also told me, “Be not dismayed, whatever betide, God will take care of you.”
I am a witness that God will take care of you; day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, week by week and year by year. I’m able to say, I once was young but now I’ve gotten a little older and I’ve never seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread. Somebody else knows that we have come this far by faith and somebody can testify that this Christian race hasn’t always been easy. Sometimes you had to agonize, sometimes it seems like the devil throws everything at you, but you have decided that you are going to bless the Lord at all times and His praise shall continually be in your mouth. Because you have faith that sees the invisible, that believes the incredible, that receives the intangible and faith that can conquer anything. We have got to stay in the race.
The chaplain for Timothy Partners, Ltd., Pastor Anthony E. Moore is a native of Baltimore, Maryland and his lovely wife, First Lady, Cynthia A. Moore a native of Dallas, Texas. Pastor Moore has served Carolina Missionary Baptist Church since 1987 and has been proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ for over thirty years. His latest book is “One Moore Minute” a devotional series. No matter your age, the color of your skin, your circumstance, your economic plight in life, it’s a fact, that through the love of Jesus Christ – you can do all things.
