Faith

Faith. It's a funny thing.

Christians have a really hard time having faith in God.

Wait. What? That's what being a Christian is, though. Isn't it?
Sure, but think about it. Sometimes as a Christian, it is crazy hard to put all your trust in God and rely on Him. To let go of control and say, "I know you can do it, God." It's also hard to believe in Christ's miraculous power, even when we see it at work. We'd rather write it off with a logical explanation (typical human response) than have faith in God's abilities, even though He does some awesome stuff all the time. God is outrageous.

This is what makes it hard for non-believers to accept Christ's love and turn to Him, and what makes it hard for believers to evangelize. Faith is way too difficult. It's much easier to turn to science, the media, and ourselves. These things are much more accessible and allow you to rationalize things. Non-believers can just say, "I don't need your crazy God. I have logic and clear-cut answers already." There's only so much you can argue to someone who is wholeheartedly against having faith in something and will never accept the inexplicable.

This is heartbreaking for evangelists. We say, "Why can't they just believe?!" We love on them and pray, but inside we shout our frustration, wishing they'd just open up to Christ. Wishing they could know Him.

Let us look at Christians, though. We always accept God's plan for us. We never get upset when our prayers aren't answered exactly the way we want and immediately. We never feel begrudged in our Christianity, and never have any frustrations or doubts. Because Christians hold everything God says to be true, we always love our neighbors, obey our parents, tell the truth, pray without ceasing, and give thanks. We always show Christ-like love. And we never look at extraordinary events as coincidences or the result of our own actions. We put all our trust into the Lord no matter what, and never subconsciously doubt His omnipotence.
FALSE.

The Bible says, "There is none righteous, no, not one". We are imperfect. We are human. And as humans, we struggle with our faith all the time. We say we have faith, but when God doesn't do things the way we want Him to (as though we know what we're doing - ha), we get frustrated with Him. We think He's making a mistake. We can't understand why He's doing what He's doing. And when God says, "Here's something astounding. I am God and I am all-powerful, so I can do this. And I think I will," we always try to make sense of it. We try to make it out to be something other than God. Not because we don't believe in God. Just because we're stupid and have trouble letting go of control.

It's a big problem. We are to fully rely on God, but we have a heck of a time doing that. I can speak for myself on this one. I always try to do it all by myself. I say, "Yes, Lord. I have faith in You. I pray your will be done. You have all the control. You're the best." And then I try and take care of things as soon as I unfold my hands and open my eyes. I can't really tell you why we humans do that. We do, though. And it's not okay.

I challenge you, and I challenge me, to make a real effort to let go. Faith is tough, but we as Christians profess our faith all the time and it's important we actually have it. How can we expect non-Christians to turn to Jesus when we can't even believe in Him?