Tuesday, January 26, 2016

When Faith of Night Rises

TAKE the situation of life that presses you into a corner you have not chosen, and would never choose, for yourself.  God is there.  The situation requires much more of you than you have in energy reserve.  God’s grace is sufficient.  His power is perfect in your weakness.  Still, you’re beside yourself in how you’ll negotiate this situation.  He’s already planned your way through, and your way out.  Then comes a final blow of some variety that sends you into the type of tailspin you cannot extricate yourself from.  When all seems lost, God comes through and turns disaster into a pivotal lesson you’re so thankful for.  These are the days of faith!
***
When hope vanishes like the day, the night of faith rises to get us through until the morning.  But in a figurative day, night winds on for an entire season; yet dawn is coming.  We know it and we hold on.
The Mechanics of Faith
Faith is in an inverse relationship to hope. There’s no faith required when hopes are strong.  Faith was born for a barren day.  Hope fails, then comes faith to take us through and over the cusp.  Faith proves a hope that seemed at the time to be hopelessness.
So hopelessness is not the end; indeed, it’s the very beginning of faith.  We ought to be glad, but we cannot be glad until we see faithfully through to the end — when our wafer-thin hope is vindicated.  And that is faith!
Because faith operates as an inverse to hope, hope is brighter when there’s seemingly no hope.  Such as it is in God’s invisible Kingdom.  Everything rests on faith.
***
When hope vanishes like the day, the night of faith rises to get us through until the morning.  And the very presence of night is our reminder to keep stepping by faith.  It really is that simple, even though it’s painfully hard.
The faith of night rises when we’ve been diligent enough to pray in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Prayer, through a conscious contact with God’s Spirit, knowing in the core of our being that God’s Presence is there, in us, and with us, is the way to ply faith.
When faith of night rises, rest assured, you’re on the right path.  The prayer of faith will keep us going, and will see us right through to brightly adorned morning.
It’s what our relationship with Christ was built for; for when the faith of night rises.
When all hope has vanished beyond the horizon, the faith of night rises and gets us right through to morning.

© 2016 Steve Wickham.

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