The Misplacement Of Our Faith
I really could not close out this section on fear unless I covered the issue of faith and the things or persons we place our faith in.
Hebrews 11:1-6 gives us a clear definition of faith. It is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Without it, it is impossible to please God.
When we place our faith in anything or in a person, we become totally dependent on that thing or person not letting us down. I made the mistake of placing my faith in Rohan and in our marriage. I believe that somewhere in the deep recesses of my heart, I believed that he would never let me down, but he has – several times. I am sure also, that in his perception, I have let him down also. Indeed he and my marriage have been proven to be very fallible.
According to The Free Dictionary (thefreedictionary.com), misplacement is the act of losing something. To misplace is to put in a wrong place, to mislay, to bestow confidence on an improper, unsuitable, idea or person.
Do not think that I am advocating a lack of trust in marriage. I am simply saying that when our faith is in the correct place, it is less likely for us to be destroyed by betrayal of any kind. All of us are fallible and are likely to hurt each other at some point in our lives despite our best intentions.
To say we have lost faith in someone or something is to declare that we really have misplaced our faith. Let’s say that you want to fill a glass with water, would you not place it under the tap or the bottle from which the water will come? If you had placed the empty glass anywhere else but under the source of the water, would you say that you were let down by the source or that you had misplaced the glass? We become disappointed in God when we misplace our faith, when we become afraid that He will not come through for us – especially in the way we expect, when we have a view of the outcome that is not in accordance to His will and timing, when we place our faith in our understanding of what should happen.
Fear is a destroyer of faith. Fear causes us to always ask “what if?” I remember my earlier days after my recommitment to the Lord, I would always ask my Pastor “what if…?” His response would always be “what if your nose was a door post?” The “what if” questions are designed to plant doubts in our minds, when what God wants is for us to trust Him completely.
Has there ever been a time when He was not faithful? Has He ever broken His Word? Has He ever lied? He has promised us that heaven and earth will pass away before His Word fails. His promises are always, “Yea” and “Amen”. If the answers to these questions are all no, then it is time we put our faith in its rightful place – in God.
Placing your faith in God does not mean that we will not face disappointment when we see our spouses not living up to the potential of their purpose. It means though, that with our faith in its rightful place, we know we can trust God to cause His Holy Spirit to move upon the hearts of our spouses, thereby positioning them to fulfill their purposes. It means that we pray towards this expected end with hope in our hearts, that God’s ultimate purpose for our spouses will be fulfilled. It means that we do not embrace disappointment and depression when we do not see it coming to pass in the time we expect. It means complete and total trust in God. Disappointment requires an emotional investment of energy that exhausts and depletes us. God wants us to rest in Him and depend on Him. Every time that I feel frustrated about where Rohan is in his walk with Christ, I remember that though I was saved at 10 years old, I spent 36 years in the wilderness before coming to the realization of who I am in Christ and into relationship with Him. I pray that it will not take that long for him, and even though I experience my bouts of anxiety in this regard, I am still trusting God to take him where he needs to be.
Faith – the substance of my hope for him and the evidence of what I know to be true but have not yet seen.
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