Forging Faith

By Pastor Jeffrey Smith 

“I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.” Psalm 27:13-14 NIV

Faith is not a passive bystander. Faith is an active participant in what God is doing. We need to forge an atmosphere of faith in everything we do. Forging means to heat something up and beat it into a new shape. To get to a place of faith, some things in our life have to be burned away or reshaped. We may have to lay pride down in order to get to the place where we live in an atmosphere in faith. In an atmosphere of faith, anything is possible.

Faith turns disappointment into hope. We somehow think that as Christians we can never be disappointed. The reality is that disappointment affects all of us but faith doesn’t allow disappointment to overwhelm us. Faith also refuses to accept that the story is over. When you’ve been through the worst, you realize it can’t break you. This is why David was confident that he would see the goodness of God in this life.

Faith does not simply wait for Heaven to be the resolution to all our challenges. It is confident that God’s goodness will breakthrough into our situation and relentlessly holds on to that conviction. We should have the kind of bold faith that believes in God’s best for this moment.  

Faith sees the outcome beyond the obstacles. We tend to get so focused on the difficulties in front of us that we overlook the obstacles ahead of us. When Paul was on a boat during a horrible storm, the Lord told him that no one on the boat would die. His faith held on to that promise, even though he was also very aware that the boat would crash. Faith looks not at the shipwreck, but rather at the miracle of how God spared all the lives on the boat. We all have obstacles, but the person of faith can see the outcome on the other side.