keeping the faith

Have you ever thrown away something valuable only to realize one day that you would give anything to have it back again?

I am known in my family as someone who hates to throw anything away. I have several boxes of papers, files and stuff stacked in our loft, just waiting for me to sort through them. It scares me to think of what I might lose if I just randomly tossed those boxes out without going through them first. (As you read this I hope you are not contacting the show 'Hoarders' to set up an intervention for me!)

Yet, even though I have been so careful about saving things, there have been times when I have been tempted to throw away something very important to me...my confidence in God, also known as my faith.

It always seems to happen when I have been in a difficult situation or when things aren't going the way I expected them to go. It is at those times when it seems like the easy thing to do would be to blame God and think that He didn't care one bit about me or what was happening in my life...question all that I know to be true about Him, allow the discouragement and fear to overtake me and ultimately lose my confidence in Him.

Hebrews 10:35 has challenged me to not act on those feelings.

"So, do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere, so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised."

Keeping my faith and not losing my confidence in God is just like hanging on to what is valuable. And the value lies in who God is...He is someone who is totally trustworthy and reliable. My faith in Him produces in me an undisturbed peace (my favorite definition of the word confidence, btw). If I threw that away I would definitely be losing something worth saving.

Knowing in my heart that I can ALWAYS trust God and count on Him to be there for me is one of the most valuable things I can hold on to...with no intervention needed!