I was recently asked this question: “How is it that you have so much faith in your God?” At first, I wasn’t sure what or how to respond so I prayed before answering since this conversation was happening via text. The only response I received was to love on my friend, to show her the love of God through me loving her. I told her I was going to attempt to answer via text but that the reason was actually simple. I have so much faith in God because I LOVE God. I love God because I know that He loves me and I told her I also know that He loves her too. Because I love God then I trust Him and I trust Him because I know Him.
I basically responded the same way as if the question would have been in regards to a person because it would be the same progression of events. When we get to know a person, we learn to trust them (or not for that matter). Once we trust them we learn to love them and then we have faith in them as a person. We have faith that they will do what they said they would do. We have faith (or believe) that that person also loves us back. We believe that person wants the best for us and we have complete confidence in that person. Of course, we are human beings and thus break that confidence or trust many times in our relationships. God doesn’t. He never breaks His promises to us.
The concepts of faith in God and the love of God for us are difficult to understand for an unbeliever but I thought this was the best way I could respond to my friend. These concepts are a revelation to our hearts that we accept by faith and the best place to start is to learn that God is love and that He loves us. How do we show others that God loves them too? By us loving them – just like Jesus did.
God has been working in my heart lately and showing me how to love others. I feel the love of God in my heart ready to be poured out into the people I come in contact with. It is a feeling I have not had in the past. It is easy to love our family and dear friends but to start loving strangers and people I have not seen or met before, just because, is new to me. I think it’s because when I see people as children of God and not as people I don’t know, the perspective changes and now I can see people through the eyes of God and mercy and compassion flows along with His love.
This experience confirms to me that the main way God loves people is through each one of us. We are the conduits to God’s love to the world. I want to conclude with a Scripture from Hebrews that I read this morning. Hebrews 6: 10-11 (NLT) “For God is not unfair. He will not forget how hard you have worked for him and how you have shown your love to him by caring for other Christians, as you still do. Our great desire is that you will keep right on loving others as long as life lasts, in order to make certain that what you hope for will come true.”