Why Family?

Several years ago, when I was at a small group meeting, one of the girls in our group was discussing some recent growth she had experienced in the midst of difficult family circumstances.

“I think God blesses us with families so that we learn to be humble and to grow in Him,” she said.

Another girl in the group responded with wry humor, “Or families are a curse from the Fall!”

We’ve all experienced rough times with family members. Even those who come from supportive Christian families still have to deal with conflicts, as multiple people with their own ideas and wills have to co-exist daily. While I don’t think families themselves are a part of the Fall (after all, Adam and Eve were put into a family together before the Fall), I do believe that the tensions and frustrations many people associate with “family” are a result of sin and the Fall. Since we are all sinners, we all hurt each other – sometimes intentionally, sometimes unintentionally.

Where friends, co-workers, teachers, and strangers are concerned, we can ignore people we don’t like. We can create distance and remove regular opportunities for conflict. With family members, especially those who live in the same house, distance and escape aren’t as practical. Living in families requires us to face our sinful natures – to struggle with our own sin and to struggle with others’ sins toward us.

And yet, in this broken mess that is often “family,” God is working. He is growing us, shaping us to be more like Jesus. The key is that we have to let Him do it. We can’t resent our family situations so much that we stop listening for His voice. We have to expect God to meet us right where we are and to work on our behalf, even when He doesn’t do it in the time or the manner that we think He should.

Have you ever felt like you were “cursed” with a family, rather than “blessed”? How is God working in and through your family life? Even if you can’t see or think of anything right away, spend at least ten minutes today thinking and praying about the good works that God is doing. Pray until God brings something to mind. Then thank Him for His provision and His strength. Ask Him to sharpen your faith through your family.

The Law and Faith

Teach me, Lord, the way of Your decrees, that I may follow it to the end.
Give me understanding, so that I may keep Your law and obey it with all of my heart.
Direct me in the path of Your commands, for there I find delight. Psalm 119:33-35

Faith is a little five-letter word that we sometimes equate with “doing all things right before the Lord at all times, trusting Him in everything, and praying really hard, believing He will answer all of our prayers, though we cannot understand it at all.” Unfortunately, faith is a really big thing that a really big God has asked us to have. Not only are we called to have faith in Him, but we are encouraged to act in faith…faith in the True and Living God. To whom much is given, much will be required and at least for me, this is sometimes a very daunting task.

Thankfully faith is also often referred to as a “gift from God” in Scripture, and we can be certain that it is not all dependent on our “ability” to have faith in Him. But unfortunately, we often forget that God has given us tools to grow our faith in Him. In our waiting for this “gift” and not trying to “work hard at achieving anything,” we often sit still and do nothing. We simply lay at night and “ask” for the gift of faith. This is also sometimes really unhelpful.

So we are left somewhere in the awkward middle, trying to do our best at what we know we are called to do (rightfully so since it benefits us and those around us) and at the same time trying to trust that we cannot do it on our own, allowing God to grow it (somehow in His supernatural mysterious way) deep within us.

Something that has clicked recently for me is the realization that God spent a lot of time giving His people “The Law” to help them live in a way that honors Him. For some reason, I never go back and read that with attention. Maybe it is the whole “Leviticus” thing that does not seem exciting to me. But slowly I am realizing that the decrees God gave His people are very purposeful, and although we live “under grace,” we do not have to throw them all out the window.

I believe that if we choose to follow them, we will be surprised at how our faith grows. There is a direct relationship between understanding and following His decrees and intimacy and trust with our Father. It worked for hundreds of years; it must still work today.

Although we do not usually think of delighting in the day-to-day commands as a way to work on our “faith,” I have found that the little things make a big difference. Even little things like turning on candles in my room to separate the Sabbath from the rest of the week (my attempt to honor the Lord’s command to keep the Sabbath holy) has made a significant impact. Each week I do it even more joyfully, and delighting in His command to keep the Sabbath holy has surprisingly made me trust His Word a bit more each time.

How do you feel when you think of “The Law”? How has your faith in God grown or changed when you have delighted in His decrees? What commands or decrees have you been working on recently? Have you spent time asking God how He wants you to follow them at this time? In what ways can you change your behavior, add or take away things to honor His commands?

Today’s post was written by Cynthia Ramirez-Martinez. Cynthia grew up in a Christian home in Mexico City. She studied Communications at Wheaton College in Illinois and moved back to Mexico last August. She currently teaches high school sociology, research, history and culture in English in Mexico City. Cynthia loves people, traveling, and missions. She gets most excited when she hears/talks about the global Church. You can read more from Cynthia at her blog, Far Country.

Where is Your Faith?

Has anyone ever told you to just “have faith” when something’s going wrong in your life? I’ve heard it often. A former pastor of mine used to preach about how we’re always trying to measure and count our faith. Maybe if we have a little more faith, we can get what we want or need. Maybe if we can work up some extra faith, God will be more pleased with us.

The Bible has a lot to say about faith, and people are certainly commended over and over in Scripture for their faith.

But as my pastor would also preach, faith has to have an object. When the object of our faith is faith or ourselves, we’ll never have enough. But when the object of our faith is the Author and Perfecter of faith, the Holy Spirit gives us more than enough faith to please God.

For me, this idea has been life-changing. I used to often confuse faith in God with faith in my own ability to have faith. I wanted to please God, and I thought I needed to do something to work up more faith and to bring about God’s plan in my life.

But when I realized that Jesus should be the object of my faith, “building faith” came to mean building more intimacy with Jesus – getting to know Him better. Not running around, praying harder, studying more fervently, and trying to muster up a stronger feeling of belief in my heart. When the relational trust is there with Jesus, the feelings of faith come naturally.

Have you ever struggled to muster up more faith for faith’s sake? Have you been taught that, in order to receive salvation or healing, you must work up enough faith? How does it help to know that Jesus, not faith itself, is the object of our faith?

Encourage Me

Today I’d like to share an excerpt with you from Charles Swindoll’s book Encouragement for Life. If you haven’t had a chance to check out this book yet, you can learn more by clicking here. It’s one of my favorites. It captures so many longings of the heart and provides great Biblical advice and encouragement.

All of us need encouragement – somebody to believe in us. To reassure and reinforce us. To help us pick up the pieces and go on. To provide us with increased determination in spite of the odds. . . .

When we encourage others we spur them on, we stimulate and affirm them. It is helpful to remember the distinction between appreciation and affirmation. We appreciate what a person does, but we affirm who a person is. Appreciation comes and goes because it is usually related to something someone accomplishes. Affirmation goes deeper. It is directed to the person himself or herself. While encouragement would encompass both, the rarer of the two is affirmation. To be appreciated, we get the distinct impression that we must earn it by some accomplishment. But affirmation requires no such prerequisite. This means that even when we don’t earn the right to be appreciated (because we failed to succeed or because we lacked the accomplishment of some goal), we can still be affirmed – indeed, we need it then more than ever.

I do not care how influential or secure or mature a person may appear to be, genuine encouragement never fails to help. Most of us need massive doses of it.

Leave a comment and tell about a time when you needed encouragement – genuine affirmation and not just appreciation. Did you receive that encouragement? Did it come from the Lord directly? Or did it come through a person in your life? What can you do this week to encourage someone?