Jul. 5, 2007 - ~* Faith-Lift Fridays July 6, 2007*~

Encourage others and yourself! 

Share a scripture, quote, devotional, lyrics, or anything that has blessed you and strengthened you in your faith.

Don't forget to grab the button and to link back to this post. 

Welcome, to the first Faith-Lift Fridays!  I'm so looking forward to reading all the great faith-lifters!

I'm most excited to think that we will be encouraging each other and, who knows what these seeds of

faith-encouragers will produce?!!

  This is my Faith-Lift post for the week...it's taken from the Women's Devotional Bible II  (NIV).  It's actually what prompted the whole faith-lift idea.  I hope it blesses and encouages you in your faith walk, as it has blessed and encouraged me.

                                                  Open-Handed Faith

                                                                by Paula Rinehart

"  I suspect that much of what I formerly called faith is little better than having invited God into the parlor of my life while I checked his references.  I was not sure that I could risk giving him the full run of the place...

  .....God is moving me toward something qualitatively different.  It is a faith that looks more like an open hand than a clenched fist -- a faith that is wide and free and at ease with uncertainty.

    This kind of open-ended trust always seems to come unexpectedly.  It comes only after you've been disillusioned with what seemed like faith, only after some stinging disappointement causes your box to collapse.  The paradox is that this kind of trust begins in those most unlikely moments when there is no experiential reason to believe.  Only then is there room for real faith to take root.  It is born in the realessness that comes when you've already lost a good portion of what you were so afraid of losing in the first place.  It sprouts at a point of contradiction.

  The movement toward genuine faith is marked by choosing to trust God even when we know the outcome may be different than we had ever imagined.  We let go of our preconceived notions of how things ought to be.  If life is a river, we jump right out into the middle and let it take us where it will.

   ....I am just now moving beyond the simple answers into a place where I can enjoy a relationship with a Person, sometimes elliptical, full of ebb and flow, desert and garden.  I am learning to let the dissonance feed my newfound trust."

     This devotional so ministered to me.  During the past 10 years of our lives, we have experienced some

serious tests of our faith: Our eldest spending a year in Iraq in the Suni Triangle during the early parts of the war; a nephew going into a long-term coma (we are still believing for his complete recovery), going through a messy house-moving/restoration with less-than-honest contractors; facing the loss of our home and our hard-earned credit being ruined...along with different things facing our kids that are for them to share in their time and way.

  Yet, just as this author said, "God is moving me toward something qualitatively different", different than the pat answers I thought I had; different than pat answers other people think they have; different outcomes than I expected and thought should be; a different kind of faith... a deeper faith...T R U S T.    And TRUST... really THAT is the issue for me.  I believe in God absolutely!  I believe in His power absolutely!  But do I really trust that ALL things work together for good?  Do I really trust that His plans for me are good?  Do I really trust His love for me when things look very different than I thought they would??

I'm "learning to let the dissonance feed my newfound trust".  I'm learning to have a faith that "looks more like an open hand than a clenched fist - a faith that is wide and free and at ease with uncertainty."

EDITED:  I apologize to everyone for the Mr. Linky problems.  I had to cut and paste this post and the comments because the Mr. Linky was causing problems with my computer every time I came to my blog.

I hope to have this problem resolved by next friday...I will probably be moving my blog to another host.

COMMENTS:

Jul. 6, 2007 - flf

Posted by annie (70.233.149.40)

Great devo Sheryl,
Sometimes having faith and trusting God in impossible situations is much like a fight (fight the good fight of faith)...
Thanks for starting faith lift fridays!
Mine's up.
love,
Annie

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Jul. 6, 2007 - Love it!

Posted by ClagettsFLStyle (97.101.9.13)

Thanks so much for inviting me over here! I love this idea! You go girl! What a great way to encourage each other before we head into our weekends!!!

Love ya!

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Jul. 6, 2007

What a wonderful Idea. My is up over at my blog.
It sort of goes along with what you are talking about this week. Not so much Turst, but more on the promisses God has given us, that will help with the Tursting though the hard times. Praise God that we do have His promisses when these things come into our life. Thank you for starting this.
KC
http://mindlesschatterofabusymom.blogspot.com

oh and here is the link to my post
http://mindlesschatterofabusymom.blogspot.com/2007/07/while-reading-annies-blog-today-i-found.html

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Jul. 6, 2007

Posted by KarenW (76.104.100.21)

What a great idea! I will try and do this later today. Just wanted to stop in and say thanks for the award!

http://www.woodward-family.com/karenwoodward/blog.html

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Jul. 6, 2007 - Faith Lift Friday

Hi! I learned about this from Annie... love it! I look forward to joining in each week!

DJ

http://dj-chocoholiclife.blogspot.com/

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Jul. 6, 2007

Hi! I learned about this from Annie... love it! I look forward to joining in each week!

DJ

http://dj-chocoholiclife.blogspot.com/search/label/Faith-Lift%20Fridays

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Jul. 6, 2007

Posted by KarenW (76.104.100.21)

Here is my contribution. http://www.woodward-family.com/karenwoodward/2007/07/faith-lift-friday.html Sorry that it's a bit late in the day.

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