A Big Bucket of Faith

"Faith is a desperate dive out of the sinking boat of human effort and a prayer that God will be there to pull us out of the water."  -Max Lucado

What the above illustration is telling us is that God reaches out to us in love to make a covenant with us. God begins the process of covenant making by making some promises to us. God promises being, significance, and a relationship. God promises to be there for us and to love us.

The first thing that we need to do to live in covenant with God is to trust God's promise; and dare to live our lives as if we believe God will keep his promise. Sure, there's some risk involved in doing that. But, unless we take that risk, we can never learn to live in the covenant with God that God wants to make with us.

Let me share an example: God made a covenant with Abram. Abram was living a pretty good life in a city of one of the greatest cultural and commercial centers of the ancient world. But, God spoke to Abram in a voice that came from beyond everything that he knew, promising to make of his descendants a great nation who would be a blessing to all people.

Furthermore, God promised to give to Abram's descendants a land of their own. In like manner, God called Abram to leave all of the security of his past life and to go adventuring in a strange land trusting the promise of God. Abram did it. He entered into covenant with God and ventured out trusting God's promise.

However, God's promise was not fulfilled quickly, or easily. Abram and his wife, Sarai, spent what would ordinarily have been more than a lifetime wandering and trusting, but they still did not have a child of their own. Then, God again came to Abram and Sarai, who were, by this time, much too old to have children and renewed His promise and told them to keep on trusting (Genesis 17:1-7, Genesis 17:15-16). They did it. In the end, the promise was fulfilled. They finally had a son — and many generations later, their descendants occupied the promised land.

I like author Virginia Whitman's take on faith. She said, "Faith is the bucket of power lowered by the rope of prayer into the well of God's abundance. What we bring up depends upon what we let down. We have every encouragement to use a big bucket." Yes! yes! yes! Use the biggest, deepest bucket you can find!

Here's one more thing before I go! In the New Testament, Paul taught that we must learn to live by faith. That means we must live trusting God's love. As many of us do today, some people in Paul's time had a hard time understanding what that meant. Some thought it meant that their right beliefs would save them. Some thought it meant their religious practices would save them.

Paul said, "If you want to know what it means to live by faith, look at Abram who dared to venture out trusting the promise of God" (Romans 4:13-25).

Scripture: 1 Peter 1:21; James 2:14; Hebrews 11:1; 1 Thessalonians 1:3;  Luke 17:6

Prayer: Dear Lord, your love gives me strength and courage to love others in return. Please help me to show love to those who are in need of it most. Amen

-special thanks to Jim Killen

God bless you!

Rachelle