Learning about Faith

As you might imagine, 8 months of unemployment can effect a person's faith. Recently I have had three very successful interviews with a company I really want to work for. Not only is the company a solid company, the position is a great fit for me. It's also located in the same town I live in, so no 2 hour commute there and 2-3 hour commute back. I really want this job. After the phone screen I was invited to come in for the interview, which I did well on. Then silence. After about a week they called me in for a third and final round, to find the best out of three candidates. After that, which went well in my experience, silence again. Then our awesome Pastor at Cornerstone Fellowship, Steve Madsen, delivered a wonderful message that gave me hope. To sum it up here would not do it justice at all. Head over and take a listen, it's beyond worth the time it takes to listen. I took the content of the sermon and put it into practice. (Jul 17th, 2011 - Ruth 2:1-3 - Available as an Mp3, Podcast, or Video)

So a week of putting this into practice with no results sent me into a huge depression and a struggle for my faith. On the other side of it, I believe my faith is stronger and nothing changed in my circumstances. At first I was really mad at myself for the struggle, but then during my reading of a Romans commentary for a Romans class at William Jessup University, which took so much effort just to want to do the homework, I found some things that helped me understand the struggle in a new light.

I wanted to share several of those things in quote form that I believe really cemented a new way of thinking deep into my mind.

Faith is not an inoculation against the germs of life. Faith is a fierce struggle. The hardest thing in life is to believe God above all circumstances. -James R. Edwards (NIV commentary on Romans)

The God who raises from the dead cannot be tamed or controlled. He can be received only by faith, and by faith God transforms frozen impossibilities into springs of home and resurrection. -James R. Edwards (NIV commentary on Romans) - Speaking about Abraham who had a promise of being the father of many nations but who 1. was too old to bear children, and 2 was told to sacrifice his only son.

Faith in the God of the impossible, gives birth to hope, and hope in the words of Hebrews 6:19, is "an anchor for the soul". -James R. Edwards (NIV commentary on Romans)

Abraham's faith was not a safe faith: "If the the Bible says it, I believe it, and that settles it!" Rather, his faith was best with opposition. The passage of time sucked the winds of hope from his sail;s, and more than once he was driven to the brink of despair. -James R. Edwards (NIV commentary on Romans)

There is nothing more injurious to our faith than to fasten our minds to our eyes. -John Calvin as quoted by James R. Edwards (NIV commentary on Romans)

True faith is strengthening faith, which exists in tension with doubt and disbelief. -James R. Edwards (NIV commentary on Romans)

Jesus too knew the struggle of faith. Faith does not exist in a vacuum. We may worship God in a sanctuary, but we do not normally find our faith in one. Faith is more often born in a boxing ring of choices - of doubt, disbelief, impossibility and meaninglessness. To adhere to the promise of God in spite of everything to the contrary is to give glory to God. -James R. Edwards (NIV commentary on Romans)

So there you go. These words really helped me to gain perspective. God does have promises for every believer and He is faithful to fulfill them. Even when everything else says he will not.