The definition of Faith is: “the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen”. We get faith by hearing the word of God. Because it is filled with 8,000 promises to a great, joyful, prosperous, purposeful, peaceful life.

     The substance of the things hoped for seems obvious. But what is the evidence of things not seen? Everything we do has a “what”, a “why” and a “how”.

    There is no evidence before an event.  Evidence is collected after an event. We want the evidence to reveal the what, how, why and hopefully the who, of the event. That’s the way it happens in the natural realm. However, faith, starts with the Who by telling God our hope, the substance of the what and the why of our need or want. It’s only after our prayer has been answered, that we can go back and collect the evidence and see “the how!” The evidence remained unseen at the time because God orchestrates a random series of unrelated events and circumstances that come together. Many times, we don’t realize our prayer has been answered until well after the fact. That’s because in our minds part A has to come first followed by B then C. God rarely answers our prayer the way we expected because our ABC plan and Gods 9,Q,PURPLE,LEFT&UP plans are so different. The good news is God always answers our prayer much better than we expected. Faith is a shield, Paul writes about the “Shield of Faith” it starts out small and thin, but by hearing the word of God we are given the ability to grow our shield large enough to cover every area of our lives. God’s love for us is unconditional, it doesn’t depend on what we do. The more we trust God, the easier it is to love Him, the easier  and the bigger our “Shield of Faith” grows. That’s why without faith it is impossible to please God. And there lies the problem; is our faith based on the outcome of our ABC prayers? Is God going to answer my prayer the way I want it answered? That is conditional love and shows lack of trust. Or do we love and trust God through His process, no matter what the outcome?

     Be mindful that God knows all our NEEDS before we ask. That is a good thing, unless we are asking with outcome-based faith. God is willing to give us what we are asking. However, God may see the NEED to help us strengthen our character in a certain area to become the person that can handle what we are asking Him for. He may have to allow a storm to come our way to strengthen our character and prepare us. How we react to the storm will show if have we outcome-based faith or faith in His process. Jesus  said to James and John when they asked to let them sit at his right and left hand when He came into His Glory. Jesus answered, are you able to drink from the cup that I drink. They replied yes, without knowing Crucifixion was in the cup. Jesus said what you ask is not mine to give, but you will drink the cup. The other disciples were indignant to James and John, probably saying to themselves; I’m able to drink the cup and almost all of them were martyred. From our point of view they suffered great hardships and persecution. But to them they counted it as all joy. They trusted in God’s process of getting them ready to drink from the cup without fear when the time came. If we are obstinate, prideful, or arrogant God may give us what we ask for before we are able to handle it, in an attempt to humble us. This can be a hard make us or break us lesson to learn and could take a long time to recover from. God is more concerned with who we are becoming. Does God give us what we want? Of course, He just wants us to become a person that can handle it. God wants us to have and do things. He doesn’t want things to have or do us. When God is truly our source, He trusts us with much more than enough.

     How do I know I’m using my faith for the right things?

     Jesus said if you abide in me and my word abides in you ask what you will, and I will do it.

     Does that mean God will give us the desires of our hearts? Yes! But it doesn’t mean He will give us our heart’s desires. God will put worthy desires in our heart and enable us to do great things.