Faith & patience

Our pastor was speaking today about the faith battle we have as believers when we’ve prayed about something—and then it seems like God just doesn’t answer. We may respond with discouragement and impatience, or being tempted to think “this is just not working.”

What should a right response be?

~ Know that God set the thing in motion when you prayed. He will work out all the details—and what is for your best good—as you wait.  (Patience is not our strong suit!)

~ Stay in faith, whether it’s long or short.  Don’t give up.  Don’t give up.

~ Deal with any blockages in your own heart—disobedience to God, failure in loving others, doubt and unbelief, trying to control things, etc.

~ Recognize that the devil is a liar all the time.  Choose to believe God’s Word about your situation.  Choose to speak His Word about the situation instead of your own doubts.

~ Rejoice and praise God in the meantime!  Your answer is on the way.

He also spoke about how to keep our minds renewed with the Word of God, citing some interesting statistics.  Here are the percentages of how much  information you retain through various methods:

• hearing – 10%
• reading – 25%
• studying – 50%
• meditating – 75%
• memorizing – 100%

It keeps coming back to making the Word our #1 priority, doesn’t it?  All else is affected by it, and certainly that’s the way to build our faith.

So I’m starting my new week encouraged to ‘hang in there’ in faith, to wait patiently on God, and to work at those last two on the list especially.

May the Lord bless your week and fill you with renewed faith in Him!