Jeremy McGarity
·
September 17, 2020

Growing in Faith

Faith is SO important that Hebrews tells us it’s impossible to please God without it. But be encouraged because faith takes time to develop and God wants us to grow in our faith. 

The Bible is clear that planning and preparing is wise, but there will come a time when you have planned all you can, prepared all you can, and you don’t know what lies ahead. It’s in this moment that a decision has to be made. Moving forward is an act of faith.

Faith doesn't come automatically. Faith takes time. And God is going to take you through a process. Here are five things that you can expect to encounter before you have your break through. 

  1. God gives you a dream or a goal or an idea and there’s something he wants you to do or accomplish.
  2. You have to decide if you’re going to take Him up on His plan or keep going your own way. 
  3. Once you decide to do it, there’s always a delay before the dream or goal is fulfilled. You’re in a hurry but God’s not. It’s not a no, it’s a not yet. Hang in there!
  4. Then comes the resistance. We tend to question things and give ear to doubts when things get hard or take too long.  
  5. Dead End. Congratulations––you have nowhere to look but up! You hit a dead end, you think it's over, but this is when God's power is really displayed.

If God has given you this dream and you’ve already gone through these stages … He’s NOT going to break His promise to you. 2 Corinthians 1:9 tells us, 

“ … we were completely overwhelmed, the burden was more than we could bear, in fact we told ourselves that this was the end. Yet we believe now that we had this experience of coming to the end of our tether that we might learn to trust, not in ourselves, but in God who can raise the dead …” 

2 Corinthians 1:9

Since God can raise the dead, He can raise a dead marriage, a dead career, a dead dream! Does this sound familiar? You’re not alone! There are stories like this all over the Bible and this should anchor your soul in faith.  
So, what’s the best response to a dead end? Expecting God to act. Be confident that at the right time, God will come through and provide a breakthrough. Where God guides, He provides.

Let me give you a personal example when I needed some hope to cope ... Not too long ago I made a drive out to Phoenix from San Diego. Some of you may be familiar with that drive. I was in the middle of one of those stretches of endless brown sand and blue sky, with literally nothing in sight for miles when the vente coffee I had earlier was ready for it's next stop. But the hope I had came from a sign that read, "Rest Stop in 5 Miles."

I WAS ABLE TO ENDURE the suffering of the moment, because the sign promised me what was ahead.

I want to encourage you, you may be suffering something for the moment, but you can be confident there are good things ahead. Have faith that the Lord will bring you through this time. You can be confident, the future holds something far better than the present. As the "sign" in Hebrews reads, "Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."

7 comments

7 thoughts on “Growing in Faith”

  1. Joshua Cramlett said:

    🙏🙏🙏🌏🌎🌍

  2. Bernie Ahring said:

    Thank you for the message. I’ve been reading Hebrews and have found its treasures to be inspiring. Thanks again for pointing me into the book of Hebrews.

  3. Peggy Kauffman said:

    Wow! God knew what I needed to hear today. Thank you for this weekly word.

  4. This is so beautiful! It’s a blog filled with very meaningful ways of growing in the love of Jesus Christ. One could go through it and think about each suggestion presented and be very blest.

  5. David Gross said:

    Thank you. So timely!

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