FAITH: Are you ready to close your eyes??

Resolute: admirably purposeful, determined, and unwavering, steadfast, resolved.

Every year we resolve to change. We resolve to do something we haven’t been doing in our minds or our lives, successfully. We begin to edit our lives and the things we feel we need to change. The things we feel we have failed at and need to do better. Whether our health, our weight, our path; better dad, better husband, better friend, better person. Stop spending, save more, no negativity, more positivity, more of God and less of me. It doesn’t really matter what it is, at the first of the year we, at least, internally resolve to do better somewhere.

For the week leading up to the New Year I began to edit my life, where I had fallen short, in hopes to alleviate my shortcomings in 2016. As my mind began to make the list, I found myself adding and deleting things until I almost felt consumed in the realization that, I have too much stuff. When we resolve to do something we stand firm, completely positive, unwavering like a rock pounded intensely by the waves. Day after day and year after year we tend to conclude that our “resolutions” become a reminder of failure. In my 35 years of life I have yet to actually conquer a new year’s resolution. I know I don’t only speak for myself but for 1000’s of others all over the world. We intently set ourselves up to fail, even though we left failure and struggle in the years past.

I know every Dec 31^st at 11:59 I await the bell, the grand celebration to release all of the past year’s shortcomings and failures, and I reach for a vibrant confidence to conquer goals in the new year. Then 12 o’clock hits everyone screams, champagne bottles pop, noise makers screech, kisses fly, and confetti falls while new dreams and goals are born in a confidence I’ve come to learn is only temporary. A confidence to change our world we live in, a confidence that was built on the past year’s failures. We are blinded by false confidence enough to believe we can actually form a true resolution. How can we be resolved in anything with false confidence? We lack true confidence because of the failure we still truly reside in. The snap of a finger or the sight of a ball dropping doesn’t just, poof!,  release the inner spirit that we have convinced of failing from the true emotion of non-completion. I have learned, no longer can I put confidence in the flesh to achieve anything, to accomplish any goal, overcome any feat or move any mountain. With my mind lost in the consumption of editing, I turn to prayer and ask God to give me one thing this year that can change my life, one word that can truly change everything. Please give me the word I need to Focus on that will move mountains and bless my life in abundance.

After a couple of days in prayer God answered my question. He first started by spending the week answering my question by having it answered through the work of others. All week my life has been challenged by others’ issues and problems that have arisen in their lives as they seek for answers through me. My answer was the same to them that he was using with me while I used scripture to teach and water their souls with his word. All the while God knew exactly what he was doing, because at the end of the week before the end of my prayer He Spoke, FAITH. Son you must have faith.

Faith defined is confidence or trust in a person or thing; or the observance of an obligation from loyalty. Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” Faith answers every problem, failure, or trouble that lies within me. Faith and confidence in prayer, Have FAITH and confidence in believing my prayers will be answered. Faith with an expectancy that God will always show up. Walk by Faith, Live by Faith, Breath by faith. Faith when I approach my finances, faith when I approach my calendar, faith in experiencing his presence in Constance! Romans 14:23 teaches, “But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.” When we eat in doubt, when we eat and have confidence in the flesh, we fail faith, we sin against our very desire to succeed. In Philippians 1:6 Paul assures us whom are broken, us whom are being worked on by God we are to “be confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” We must have unshakeable faith that God is not done with us yet. His painting of our lives is much grander than the unfinished ugly work on the backside of the canvas, for on the day of completion in his work we can be assured that, when we are invited around to the front side of his work it will be the most beautiful painting our eyes could ever fathom.

The good news is not pick yourself up, it is not you can do it, THE GOOD NEWS IS  put your faith and confidence in him because he has begun a work in you he promises to complete. You say it’s risky, you say I’ve done that Sean, I’ve risked everything to follow Jesus. I say with risk comes cost, with risk comes injury, but your injury is self- inflicted, your cost is the stripping and tearing down of the old you so God can mold and transform the beauty of his work into something much greater than you can ever imagine. But Sean I want to avoid pain, I don’t want to risk because risk is painful. I’ve got news for you, avoiding pain is like avoiding gravity, you will never avoid pain.

The enemy lurks constantly to steal your confidence through accusation and assumption, blinding your eyes to falsehoods of God and his promises. My confidence has been shaken, my confidence torn to the ground, however, Jesus says in Matthew 16:25, “For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.” It’s time to lose your life, it’s time to step out and walk on water in faith, God will direct you to land. Confidence is used 54 times in the bible, Faith is used 336 times in the king James version. We can confidently have faith in all we do this year. For all of us whom have been injured when taking risk please hear in Hebrews 10:22-23, “let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, he who promised is faithful.” God is FAITHFUL to us. His promises reign true.

I know that having my confidence shaken deters me from confidently approaching him. I have a hidden belief that I am in trouble, there’s no way I can come to him in confidence! I’ve done this, I’ve done that. I’m for sure in trouble. I allow my mind to be taken over by the enemy in assumption. It’s like when I get a text or you get that text from your mom that just says, “Call Me”, my mind begins to swirl, what did I say, what did I do, how can I field this, so I pick up the phone and make the call. “Hello” “hey sweetie, just wanted to let you know I got tickets to the basketball game, wanted to see if you wanted to go.” “WOW, really that’s it” We have to approach God with confidence and freedom. Ephesians 3:12 reminds us, “In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.” We can come to him bare, we can approach him with the faith as though our week was Jesus’ week. We can come before god having been clothed with the righteousness of Christ. You see we have been given the permission to approach the throne of grace boldly and with Faith. Hebrews 4:16, “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” So I leave you with this we are to remain faithful and full of confidence in everything that we do. Knowing that our god will always show up in all that we do. David says in his exuberant declaration of faith in Psalm 27 13-14 “I remain confident of this; I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.” BE STRONG, TAKE HEART and wait for the lord! Wait for the lord for he is always faithful, his hand will always deliver, and is not done with you yet. It is time to close my eyes and grab his hand, is it yours?



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Deliverable Sean A. Blair: reblesforchrist@gmail.com