Life as a Christian Woman

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Galatians 5:22-23

Ah, faith. So easy to understand, nearly impossible to live. We all strive to have the “Faith of our Fathers,” to live without doubts in our Christian walk. And yet we all struggle with faith at one time or another.

In Mark, there is a story of Jesus casting out a demon. A man had brought his son to the disciples, who were unable to cast out the demon because of their lack of faith. Christ chides them,

O unbelieving generation, how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.
Mark 9:19

The man brings his son to the Lord. The son immediately falls to the ground, convulsing and foaming at the mouth. The father asks Jesus if he can do anything to help. Jesus reply?

‘If you can’? Everything is possible for him who believes. Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”
Mark 9: 23-24

Jesus drove the spirit from the boy, and he was healed. But the sentence the father spoke to our Lord is so amazing, and so rich with meaning… “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

Doesn’t that just about sum up all of us? We as Christians believe. We believe in God, we believe the Bible is His holy word. And yet, we need help with our unbelief, our inability to completely trust Him with everything.

He told them, “Because of your lack of faith. I tell you with certainty, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.
Matthew 17:20

A mustard seed is tiny, and yet if we could exhibit that little bit of faith, we could change the world. We try. We pray. And yet, we struggle.

I want to share a personal story with you (I guess we’ve all known each other long enough now, huh?). I have always felt that I was going to have a baby. From an early age, I believed that God had put that love in my heart to raise a child. But as my life went on, things weren’t going according to my plan. In fact, I didn’t find the love of my life and marry until I was 40. Over the next four years I suffered several miscarriages, and was told by doctors that it appeared I would never be able to have children. That went against what I had felt God telling me for years, and what my husband had felt in his heart, as well. But finally, after a miscarriage in 2002, I told Doug, “That’s it, no more trying.” I had given up. I had no more faith that God was going to follow through with what I felt He had told me years earlier.

So I went upstairs and sat down. And then I heard a voice, as real as could be, yet no one was in the room with me. The voice said, “You’re going to have a baby, it’s going to be a girl, and you’re going to name her Emilee Faith.”

I looked around. I didn’t know where the “voice” was coming from. What I did know was that the voice was from God, whether He had sent an angel to speak to me, or what, but I did know that the voice sounded a bit ticked off.

And then a verse popped into my head, a verse I’m not sure I had ever heard before, and one I’m sure I had never paid any attention to:

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:1

Six weeks later, I found out I was pregnant. I told my husband, and he looked at me and said, “I know.”

Seems like God was working on both of us!

I had lost my faith that God would fulfill a promise, yet His promise remained.

And yet, I still doubted God! I told my husband I didn’t want to tell anyone about the pregnancy, unless we lost another. But my husband, who’s faith outshines mine, said, “If we don’t tell anyone, how can they pray for us?”

Faith is elusive, even in the presence of a miracle!

To make a long story short, nine months later I gave birth to Emilee Faith. God fulfilled His promise, even though my faith was weak, and is still weak.

Our God is a faithful God, shouldn’t we return the favor?