Faith and Familiarity 🙌🏽🙌🏽

 I sat down to think about who my ’home team’ is. Who are ‘my people’? The ones I can be myself with- regardless of the time of the day, the season of my life, the place I am at. The ones who I can joke and laugh and cry with…the ones who I want to share my everyday events with. The ones who can walk into my house unannounced and grab what they need from my pantry. Thankfully I have a few of those ‘my people’ God has blessed me with. Holy spirit led me to think how I treat them. Do I take them for granted? Do I take time to celebrate them? Did my relationship with them come to a point of complacency? Does my familiarity in my relationship with ‘my people’ made me become unintentional with them?

I asked myself the same question in relation to my faith. Does my familiarity to the things of God diminish the power of faith in my life? Do I exercise the power of faith in my everyday life or has it turned into another comfortable relationship? The Holy Spirit loves to move with power in response to faith. Hebrews 11:30 tells us, “By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days.” Hebrews 11:32-33 says, “For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets—Who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions.” And throughout Scripture we see God using his power in response to the faith of his people. Whether it be the walls of Jericho tumbling down or the lame man at the temple gate called Beautiful jumping to his feet, God clearly moves in powerful ways when his people live by faith. Jesus even promises in Matthew 17:20, “If you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” If we have the smallest amount of faith, Jesus says, “Nothing will be impossible” for us. The God who formed every mountain, valley, river and ocean, has told you that he will fight on your behalf in response to your faith.

I believe, God uses all kinds of people with different backgrounds, and of various ages, economic status, languages, and ethnicity. In other words, God uses people who are not afraid to trust God completely, or what we call as having faith, and this faith produces enormous power for greater purpose. I need to be sensitive to this reality everyday – all the days of my life. And when I sit in the presence of God, I need to always remember the cross and the price paid by Jesus just because of the fact that he loves me! And every single time, my heart should fill with love and gratitude to the point of longing for His presence. I cannot afford to take this for granted or become complacent in my relationship because He gave what mattered most and I need to work towards becoming who I am in Him. What the Bible tells us is that there is a direct correlation between faith and power. The more faith we put in God, the more we allow God to direct our lives, the more power and blessing we’re going to have. We see this correlation when Jesus visits His hometown of Nazareth. “He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.” (Matthew 13:58) It was their lack of faith that stopped Jesus’ power from being on full display. They became complacent to his power due to the familiarity of his presence. God never meant for any of us to go through life in this world alone, that is, in our own power and understanding. I should remember this on the days I stand feeling all alone – left to fight my battles! God has tremendous power just waiting and available for me to plug into daily and it is tangible for me if only, I am intentional in my relationship with Him. I should remember that I am the child of the Most High, the all-powerful God and my life is marked by the power of my faithful heavenly Father.

Written by: Anu Varghese