Faithfulness part 1

If you've been keeping up with my blogs then you know I'm doing the Bible study Living Beyond Yourself by Beth Moore. This week's lesson was on Faithfulness. And in some ways I think it dealt more with my fear. SO much this week stuck out to me and situations I have been in, in the past. They way I've seen myself, family and friends react in different situations. Day 2 was entitled "Those Who Believe". Beth addressed what she called "Hall of Faith" she took it from Hebrews 11 which addressed a few among many of the faithful from the old and new testement. Read it...It opened my eyes. almost before every entry it said "By faith..."(nkjv) Re-iterating those words before every action made it stick in my mind. Realize how God was present in every situation of faithfulness and how he brought them through the situation. Heb. 11:1 Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. We were created to please God. To walk with God we must have faith. I think it's intersting that Beth points out that before we were called Christians we were called believers. She goes on to state that the term believers means 'the faithful' or 'those who believe God.' "If we refuse to keep believing God after salvation, He has no pleasure in us. Love for us? YES. Pleasure in us? NO".
An annolgy Beth uses to describe our faith is like being on a roller coaster. How this hit me in the face. With my call on my life, coming to Europe, and many more times. Especially with Europe. Not having all my finances raised but God still allowing me to come, then once I was here the finances were still not in order. My faith in God was strong at the begning but then after I got my first financial report my faith waivered. I prayed that God would continue to provide yet in my mind I knew I was sinking. I didn't have full faith in God. My mouth spoke it but my actions said otherwise. Crying on bed to the point of a hyperventalating cry. Crying out to God for help but not fully trusting him that it would come. The only way to get off that emotional rollercoaster of lack of faith is to have stead-fast faith that can't be "greatly moved" (Psalm 62:2. Beth asked the question 'DO you base your faith on what God does or who He is?" At that time about a month ago I was basing my faith on what God does not who He is. For that fact my world came crashing down. I wasn't seeing results the way I expected to see them. Therefore my faith folded. I think at times in our life we often have faith based on what God does...we'll believe God as long as he does what I ask...the faith is based on how often our prayers are answered or how well they are answered. When our faith is based on what God we will never get off the rollercoaster. It will constantly be a series of ups and downs. We're good as long as God is answering our prayers but the moment we don't see God being active we begin to spiral downhill.