These words are penetrating my soul at the moment. As I read this verse in Isaiah I notice it is underlined, highlighted, and circled in my bible. I remember how I so loved this verse and I can hear my old enthusiastic amen ringing in my head! I felt oh so confident in my determination to ‘stand in my faith’. I would never be shaken!
Oh how I was wrong! The words of this verse are so much more true to me today. However, I struggle more now than ever to ‘stand in faith’. In years past this was just a beautiful ideal. To me it meant nothing more than my effort to not overly worry about anything and then God would come through and prove I had nothing to worry about in the first place. Well, that is not standing in faith at all! That is just positive thinking and my own imagination. Faith goes so far beyond that understanding. Faith is a knowing that no matter what it looks like, feels like, or your own instincts tell you the only place of safety is in your knowledge of God. It is choosing to let Him into every part of your life (even the most painful) and submitting to His Holy work of healing. It is choosing to stay engaged with him even when the circumstances of life seem to be contradicting His character.
When my faith is being put to the fires, I am constantly looking for something else to stand firm in. Something more immediate, something I can control. When God in His infinite goodness brings me face to face with my doubts and brokenness, I still quickly buy into the lie that I can stand firm in something other than He. When I am slighted by a friend, suffering with pain, or struggling as a parent I just want to run to something else… anything else! I still believe that I can protect myself.
