Faith for Today

Habakkuk 3:2 (NIV)
Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O LORD. Renew them in our day, and in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy.

Sunday morning, Lou Engle preached a message that stirred my heart. Don’t ask me to give you a synopsis, because I couldn’t. It wasn’t a matter of what he said as much as what it compelled to me to think, feel and believe for. Lou’s message stirred the faith within me - faith to believe that this fast would be formative for my life.

Faith is a funny, oft-misunderstood thing. It’s more active than simple belief. Faith is the state of believing for what was then and there breaking into the here and now. Most believers have a grid for God doing things in the past, be it two years or two millennia gone by. To merely acknowledge God’s hand in the past, however, simply makes you a historian. To be a person of faith is to set your heart on the idea that these days can be like those days and that our God is that God.

It would be a tragedy if these 40 days ended up being primarily about self denial or hunger for us, although there are certainly those aspects a fast. This fast is not for the purpose of doing without, but rather for the purpose of waiting on God, to see Him do what He will. This fast is gift from God that He wants to use as a precipitator to His showing Himself in the here and now.

I’m beginning to enjoy the gift as my heart agrees with the prophet - I stand in awe of your deeds, O LORD. Renew them in our day, and in our time.