Hey friends,
First and foremost, let me start out with this: God is rallying for you. He is unapologetically, head over heels for you and your soul. He’s cheering you on in the day to day, no matter the circumstances… and He’s had a purpose for you before anyone else even had an opinion about you. He wants to ignite your faith so strongly that doubt and fear runs away to hide in the face of His presence. God wants to take you higher.
FAITH (according to Merriam Webster): The complete trust or confidence in someone or something
FAITH (according to the Bible): The confidence in what we hope for, the evidence of what we don’t see, Hebrews 11:1
You might be reading this and thinking, “I don’t really know too much about this God guy. My faith is probably pretty weak. Maybe I don’t even have any at all.” Well, friend, have you ever gotten in the car with an Uber driver? You trusted him/her to get you from place to place, and without getting into an accident. That’s a degree of faith. I also have faith in my Starbucks barista whenever I order my go-to drink; an iced coffee with hazelnut and almond milk, that they actually use almond milk instead of regular milk since I’m lactose intolerant.
You might also be saying, “I believe in Jesus. I’ve accepted Him as my Lord and Savior. I have faith.” Matthew 17:20 says, “Truly, I tell you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
I don’t about you guys, but I want that type of faith – the out-of-the-box, God is going to do what He says He’s going to, and even if it’s not what I want I’m still going to trust in Him kind of faith. And guess what? God is committed to growing it.
Let’s take a look at one of my favorite people in the Bible that stands out because of the way God shaped his faith.
We all know the story of “Noah’s arc,” but we have to be careful that it’s not so rehearsed that it almost becomes mundane, because this is one of the greatest faith stories (and one of the first examples we see) in the Bible. In the simplest terms, Noah began building the arc before it even started to rain. Let me take you back a little. Noah and God were tight; so tight that the Bible says in Genesis 6:9 that “he walked in close fellowship with God” – meaning that they were friends. How cool! Let’s also take a second to put this into perspective: Think about some of your closest friends. How much do you trust them? We should trust God immensely more.
Anyway, when God saw that the earth was being filled with corruption, violence, and chaos, He was pretty fed up and decided to wipe out every living thing on the earth with a flood, but since Noah and God were so close, God confirmed His covenant (in other words, “promise”) with him. He gave specific instructions to Noah to build a big boat to house his family and every pair of animal in existence. Without question, “Noah did everything exactly as God commanded him” (Genesis 6:22). Noah trusted what God promised and did what He asked, even though it wasn’t even raining yet. Fast-forward a few months, after the flood destroyed the earth, to Genesis 8:1-4, “But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and livestock with him on the boat. He sent a wind to blow across the earth, and the floodwaters began to recede. The underground waters stopped flowing, and the torrential rains from the sky were stopped. So the floodwaters gradually receded from the earth. After 150 days, exactly five months from the time the flood began, the boat came to rest on the mountain of Ararat.” FIVE MONTHS. I bet Noah felt a little discouraged and stressed during this time, living with his family among a bunch of livestock in the middle of a flood, probably wondering if they’d ever see land again… but I also bet he had the faith to plop down in the arms of God and say, “I’m asking You to get us through this and I believe You will.” Well, God came through. Noah had great faith, and God kept His promise.
The best way to honor God is through your crazy, wild, unconstrained faith. Just imagine how different your perspective would be if you had absolute confidence that God was with you, for you, and never ever leaving you. Just think about how differently you’d respond to temptations, hardships, and even the most exciting things that happen in your life if you knew with unwavering assurance that God was planning to use it for good. Imagine how God will rock your campus if you’re so overflowing with faith that you actually believe He will. Unleash your faith, flex it, and as my girl Elsa says, “let it go,” and God will dramatically change your life.