What Does Faith Look Like?

Have you ever asked yourself what faith actually looks like in someone's life? Or were you like me and assumed faith meant never doubting, never fearing and never questioning? Of course thinking like that will lead you to the assumption that you lack faith. Perhaps you can relate to that quite well. I've been thinking about faith a lot lately and I have come to the conclusion that, sometimes, explaining what faith is is best done by contrasting it with what it isn't.

Faith is not a lack of doubt. It is obedience in spite of your doubt. It is hope in spite of your doubt. It is looking at an impossible situation and accepting that nothing is impossible with God. God desires to bring glory to Himself. How much greater glory can He receive than making what seems impossible in our eyes actually happen? Faith says even though what I'm going through stinks, there is a purpose and God is always in control of the situation. When our flesh cries out "ENOUGH!! I cannot handle anymore!", faith is what enables us to continue living and hoping and praying when the situation fails to change. 

Faith is not a lack of fear. It's choosing to believe or act in spite of your fear. Fear may say that something can't be done, but faith encourages us to try anyway. Faith is not always having hope. There may be times you despair and lose hope, but faith eventually brings it back. Faith is not living without the question "why?" but accepting that even though we may not ever know why, God has a good reason and we ultimately receive good out of it. 

In the midst of your doubt, fear and questioning - when you don't like a situation, much less understand why it's happening - do you continue to go to God in prayer about it? Do you pray even when you feel hopeless and a positive outcome seems impossible? That, my dear friend, is faith! When you fall on your knees before God and pour your heart out to Him and give Him your burdens to carry - that is faith. When you keep asking even though it seems He isn't listening - that is faith. When you choose to praise Him before your prayer is answered - that is faith. When you praise Him for His goodness although all around you is despair and darkness - that is faith. When He answers your prayer in a way you don't necessarily like but you praise Him anyway - that is faith. Faith enables us to believe that all the answers we lack, He knows, and He'll give us exactly what we need at the moment we need it and not a moment sooner or later.