Do you ever look back on your life of faith with regret? Do you look down and feel like a failure because you weren’t a Billy Graham, or made some great theological impact? This happens to pastors, missionaries, and church workers, quite often. How about those of us who are lay people, and everyday Christians? Do we think that we have let Jesus down because we haven’t contributed in some dramatic way to our church? Well stop right there! God uses the smallest acts of obedience and makes them great in the kingdom.

Do we have routine habits of faith? Are we made proficient in our faith by setting aside certain times each day to regularly read, pray, or just contemplate God, and Jesus? If not, and we are dependent on random thoughts to guide us and going to church once or twice a week to mature our faith, then we are missing out on a wonderful growing relationship with Jesus and the full power of God in our lives.

What bubbles up from within us during prayer? Do we ever begin to pray and then hear ourselves as if from some faraway place; speaking to God in a language of groans and utterances that we can’t translate into words, but feel perfectly conversant in within our hearts? Our spirit, and the Holy Spirit that resides within us are speaking to God in a dialect unknown to us but understood perfectly in Heaven.

Who will we come in contact with today? Is there some “Chance” happening that isn’t quite as random as it might seem, and that the Lord has orchestrated specifically for His purposes? There are many opportunities for intercession that occur in our daily lives that we think of as less than significant because we are unable to see and think as God does… do we pray for them anyway, or do we pass them by for something we consider more important? God knows the beginning from the end and thus there are no chance happenings when it comes to Him. Are we prepared to pray for good in the midst of the bad, and for the least before the greatest?

How deep is our faith in Jesus Christ? Have we believed all our lives that Jesus is the Son of God, and yet never been intimate with Him? Have we walked down to the altar weeping and confessing He is the Lord of our life, and then continued along with the reins of life held tight in our own hands? Maybe we spend a lot of time trying to make ourselves righteous by doing those things Jesus taught while doing them without ever having met our living Savior. In faith, true faith, we must release the reins and allow Him to make us righteous, and holy.

When we talk with a friend about Jesus in a public place do we speak in hushed tones? When someone asks us about Jesus in a crowded room do we whisper in their ear, or just nod our head? If so, let me tell you a couple of stories, and give you some supporting scripture, that might change this behavior and normalize your everyday conversations regarding God, Jesus, and our faith in general.

Do we go about rationalizing our own actions while claiming to be a servant of God and follower of Jesus? Do we use the good nature of God as an excuse for doing just those portions of His Word that we agree with? Do we believe that this is anything other than outright disobedience and a lie we tell ourselves? If so, then we need to re-evaluate our faith and interpretation of His Word. God may not be forcing us to obey Him or do His will, but that doesn’t diminish its importance in the least. He expects us to obey Him to the letter without quibbling or doing so halfway.

We have been purchased with the blood of Jesus Christ and are privileged to know Him personally. We have been baptized in water, and then again in the Holy Spirit as they were poured over and into us, having been born on the wings of grace and carried within the sweet breath of Christ Himself. Yet despite this, we find that the allure and temptation of sin can be too great for us to resist. How can this possibly be? How can we at one moment be declared the temple of the Holy Spirit and in the next find ourselves in a pit of raging lions… which are our sins.

Are You Facing trials in your life right now? Does it feel like God has abandoned you and let the world have its way with you? Well praise Him for where you are right now because in your misery God is expanding the breadth of your faith. It is in such times that our faith isn’t tested... it is stretched as we reach desperately for His hand. Remember when the disciples of Jesus had just failed... when they had been unable to cast a devil out of a child? They were feeling sorry for themselves and with their faces drooping, they asked Jesus why they hadn’t succeeded, and He said...

Are we someone who prides ourselves on common sense and morality? Do we believe it to be a substitute for faith in God? Throughout our lives we have most certainly heard people say, “that man is a good person and he does good things.” about someone who is of good character and is morally sound. But is being a good and moral person enough to satisfy God? Is it enough to earn us eternal life?

Do you think that Jesus gave His life for us out of sympathy or because He felt sorry for us and our plight? Do you think He saw our sin and set about relieving us of it purely out of empathy or mercy? No, beyond all else Jesus gave His life for us out of obedience to His Father’s will, and He agreed to pay this price without knowing exactly how much it would cost Him. Could we do this if asked by God?

Are we in search of the “things” of our lives; you know, the thrill of our life, the job of our life, the experience of our life, and if we are so fortunate, the love of our life? These are all examples of the “things” that we seek after every day. These are the “things” that we believe will make us happy, and let’s be honest with ourselves... we all do this to some degree, and once we think we have found them are we ever completely happy? Have we found the true and full joy of our lives in them? No, I’m afraid not… our only hope for true joy and life is in Jesus Christ.