encouragement – Page 2 – Carried in the cross

Where faith may fail

Do you ever feel as though your faith has failed?
Ya, me too.
You build yourself up with courageous words and scripture verses to make your heart feel okay, but deep down you still feel faithless. A nagging voice says, ‘you know God doesn’t operate like that anymore! You know that those kinds of miracles ended before the 20th century began. So why pray for it? Why run after something that you will never catch? You’ll just end up looking silly for trying so hard. Give up. Faith has no ground.’
Wow. Say ‘hello Devil, when did you get here?’ because that’s the voice I hear when I hear such words. It is clearly the Devil saying such things; eating away at your Faith like a monster devouring flesh, but that doesn’t stop us from believing such wicked and common lies. We hit a wall where our Faith feels powerless and we just can’t fight through. I realized something the other day. Why do we fight with our Faith? Faith isn’t a weapon. It’s a shield. The Holy Spirit is the weapon! Our Faith feels battered because we are using it to beat down our enemy. We drop our sword, take our shield in both hands and smack our enemy with it with all our strength! And we get knocked back on our belt of hard truth. The truth is that with our own strength we can’t do anything. But if we attack our enemy with the sword of the Spirit the enemy will fall! Because we are using God’s strength to win! Our Faith gets battered because we wield it as a weapon. Which it isn’t. But as a shield, as our defense, our Faith is unmatched in power because our Faith is in the unmatched, powerful God. Whose name is Jesus.

So then, put on the full armor of God-Ephesians 6:10

Do you ever get ‘prayer’s-block’? Me too.
It’s hard isn’t it? To have your mind over taken by every-single-possible-thing you could think of and the one thing you can’t think of is your praying. When that happens to me I whine at God about not being able to concentrate and say things like, ‘if only you were easier to focus on.’ And, ‘if your presence was more clear right now I could do this better.’ Guess what? That never helps me focus. Sometimes I try God meditation. I put on soothing instrumental music and sit on the floor so my brain isn’t telling me to go to sleep like it does when I am on the couch trying to concentrate, and sometimes that helps. Sometimes lighting a candle or starting a fire, (in a pit preferably outside) helps. Or watching my horse graze. Or staring at the sky. Something that doesn’t take much effort but reminds me of how awesome God is. When none of the above works I switch tactics and I worship. Because I can always put on music and listen to the words about how awesome God is. I even found a radio station that plays worship time. It is literally a musician who is doing a guided worship for those of us struggling to concentrate. It’s called ‘power of worship radio’ for those of you who would like to try it.
Just remember. God loves you for your trying. Even if you are struggling to see Him and focus on Him, He sees your attempt and it makes Him happy.

Tag: encouragement

Where Faith may fail

Prayer blocks