Faith Part 2: We’ve Come This Far By Faith

It was 3:00 pm on the Fifth Sunday of January and Sis. Mary Margaret, Senior Usher Board President, gave the signal to the musicians to begin the musical prelude so the Annual Usher Board Program.  She gave the Usher’s one more look over and they looked so good in the black suits, black shoes, white carnations on the left side of their lapel, gold Usher Board pins on the right and their sparkling white gloves.  All 32 of her pearly white teeth glistened so bright that she would have been a perfect model for a teeth whitening commercial.  As she reminisced over the past year working with the Junior, Youth and Senior Ushers, she was almost overcome with emotion, especially when she thought about the last six weeks.  Sis. Mamie quickly handed out tissue because she could tell by the look on Sis. Mary Margaret’s face that it was going to be one of those Sundays.  At her signal the doors opened, the emcee announced their entry and they began to sing as they marched in like perfectly synchronized soldiers:

We've come this far by faith, leaning on the Lord; trusting in his holy word. He's never failed us yet. Oh! We can't turn back, we've come this far by faith.

As the congregation began to sing with them, tears streamed down Sis. Mary Margaret’s face because that song was her testimony.  She loved God with all of her heart and soul, she was a tither, faithful to the ministry, she loved God’s people and she believed God could do anything but fail.  People knew better than to talk about failure, quitting or impossibilities around her, because she was an incredible encourager and by the time you finished a conversation with her you would be so encouraged that you would almost feel invincible.  I’ll never forget one conversation we had about a situation that seemed hopeless to me.  She said:

“Dear Heart, what do you want from God?”  I looked at her like she had three eyeballs, (green, blue and brown) and thought to myself, “What in the world are you talking about?” as I gave her the blank look stare – but respectfully.  She asked the question again, “Precious, what do you want from God?” I said “I want him to deliver me.”  She said, “Try again.”  I was starting to get irritated but then something snapped on the inside; I realized I had been in reactive mode ever since this situation arose and I had not taken the time to analyze it nor ask God specifically for what I wanted.  I remembered something she told me a while ago which was: 1) “God will never play second to you or anyone else and He demands full access or He won’t participate; 2) You must be specific with God but flexible and 3) Quitting is not an option.  To quit means you doubt that God in all His magnificence, infinite power and unlimited resources can help you.  In other words, your challenge(s) are too great for God to handle.  For real?”  And she really said “for real” with her head cocked to the side looking at me like I had three eyeballs.

We have come this far by faith

·       I would have lost heart, unless I had believed; That I would see the goodness of the Lord
In the land of the living.  Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord!  Psalms 27:13-14

The 27^th number of Psalms is a declaration of faith that I would suggest you read on your own, but I want to zero in on the 13-14 verses.  There was a hit on (King) David’s life and he was on the run, not because he had done anything wrong, but because his enemy was jealous, intimidated and threatened by the favor of God on David’s life.  Though he had every reason to be afraid, he made the choice not to fear God because he believed God would protect him (he had faith in God). 

In this verse he admits that he would have given up, but something inside him wouldn’t allow him to.  He was convinced that he would be delivered from the hand of his enemy.  He didn’t know how, when and he couldn’t explain it, he just knew.  Now that he was in the right frame of mind and his judgment wasn’t clouded by fear, he was able to think about the goodness of the Lord and decided he wanted to live, just as he did when he was faced with protecting his father’s sheep as a young teenager:

“Your servant has kept his father’s sheep,” David replied to Saul, “and if ever a lion or a bear came and carried off one of the flock, ³⁵ I would go after it, strike it, and rescue the animal from its mouth. If it turned on me, I would grab it at its jaw, strike it, and kill it. ³⁶ Your servant has fought both lions and bears. This uncircumcised Philistine will be just like one of them because he has insulted the army of the living God.  1 Samuel 17:34-36 (CEB)

But Tania, if I’m just getting started on my faith journey, I don’t have anything to draw on.  Of course you do.  You cannot tell me that there has never been a time in your life when you should have experienced tragedies, but “something happened”, for example:  car accident; bullet stuck in the chamber; you got sick (lost your keys, your ride faked on you, etc.) and couldn’t go to the club/party only to find out that had you gone, it would have been major drama.  You can’t convince me that you haven’t had some type of supernatural intervention.

Who and/or what do you think that was?  Was it an accident; Karmen (Karma); fate or Faith?  The lack of faith is certainly a challenge for some people, but I believe impatience is the biggest hinder for most people based upon our fast paced, in a hurry to get somewhere to wait lifestyles that cause us to lose out.  It’s great to be independent, but not when it comes down to God.  He wants to help but you have to want Him to help you.

In His Humble Excellence

Tania