Thursday, March 6

Romans 4:18-25

It's difficult to think of the cost of discipleship, especially our own....
It's difficult to face that Jesus lost his life and calls us to lose ours as well....that he took up the cross and tells us to do the same.
It's difficult to face the future--not knowing what will happen--to think like Abraham and Sarah, that your life will end without hope or meaning.
It's difficult to believe when all around you it is dark, and all you have is a promise.
Such a situation calls either to despair or to faith--to "acting as if."

Think of the movie Field of Dreams.... "Build it, and they will come." Rev. Richard Fairchild suggests, "Build it and your dream will come true, the promise will be fulfilled. Build your life as if the only thing that matters is God's promises, and they will come to pass. Build your attitude each day as if God is your hope and your joy--and you will have peace. Build your actions each day as if mercy and forgiveness conquer sin and death--and you and the people around you will become whole." Abraham is the father of faith--because he believed--and waited patiently, all the while acting as if God would do as he said.

Fairchild goes on to say, "Even when we don't believe, if we act as if we do believe, what God has promised comes to pass, and our belief grows." It's called stepping out in faith. It's called standing on the promises. It makes hope come alive and turns the darkness of doubt into the brilliant light of faith."

At the turn of the century a Methodist Bishop by the name of Wright said that humans would never fly. The names of his two sons? Wilbur and Orville. Are you challenged by a situation in your life? Are you facing something that is unfaceable? Try acting as if the problem can be overcome, as if the unfaceable is faceable., and continue by thinking that God is with you and has promised that you will overcome when you walk in the path of Christ. Go forward in trust, despite your doubts and fears, despite the easy ways out that are offered to you.

There is no easy way out of what life demands of us; there is no avoiding the words of God. But there are a dream and a promise that we can act upon, and which, when acted upon, lead us to the life that God wants us to have.