The word of God never ceases. The power of His word uplifts and gives hope. It also gives strength, answer, and eventually, fulfillment of our purpose in life.
AVV411
With my series of spiritual bread articles in this column, readers kept on sending inspiring messages asking me to come up with more articles like this. Actually, the original plan was to come up with a single article about the one week or seven days spiritual bread but as I was writing it, it turned into a series and now the readers are asking for more.
This is the last part in the series of spiritual bread articles but nevertheless, I will come back with a new twist in my column for those who are hungry for more straight forward explanations on life experiences based on the spiritual bread that our soul needs.
DAY 7 : FAITH TILL THE END
2 TIMOTHY 4:1-8
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
In all aspects of life, we’re always off to a good start and have high expectations only to lose that faith in the process and eventually lose the fight and give up the race. It has happened to all of us, one way or another, but it is never too late to rekindle that faith God wants from us.
In my ministry, a quarter of the people seek my advice on problems regarding their partners in life, their married life, and their emotional dilemmas. There are many cases of separations and some are in the process of annulling their marriage. This is a classic example of losing faith and giving up.
The main culprit is the wrong notion of constancy; that everything will be the same as it was where in fact the only thing constant on earth is change, nothing is forever. Of course God is endless and beyond forever but He is not on earth.
In every relationship, the expectation and hope of perfection is very high at the start only to gradually slide into frustration as the days go by. In married life, romance slowly diminishes once problems are encountered. They will blame each other for their hardships and before they knew it, they have fallen out of love and will start looking for a solution somewhere else, with someone else.
We forget that we are ordinary beings prone to mistakes and capable of falling into temptations of every kind. The perception of having a perfect partner is only and will always be an illusion. In every problem, never lose faith on your partner and you will see that it will be easier to overcome trials if both parties will face it hand in hand rather than alone and being enemies. Relationship is about contribution, about sharing; not of problems but of solutions. Do not lose that faith; instead be strong and hopeful so that when you commit a mistake, your partner will be there for you, just as you were there for your partner.
We change leaders through election and sometimes through revolution because they failed our expectations. We have elected all kinds of people with different characters and attitudes but our nation is still poor and full of corrupt people. Yes, it doesn’t sound good but this is a reality we need to accept if we want to change our current state.
Real change cannot be achieved just by changing a leader and still putting everything in their hands; this applies to both private and government entities. As part of the society, the leaders and the ordinary citizens/ members must constantly contribute to achieve that change for the better. But the thing is that not everyone has the faith that we can achieve that change. Personally, I believe we can. If, for instance, all of us obey a simple law on jaywalking then we will have a better future. If, as we go about our everyday lives we follow even the basic pedestrian and street laws, then we can be rich like Singapore – a country where success is attributed to obedience of the law. You have to have faith that change can be achieved even if you are the only one who observes obedience to our laws.
Graduating does not really guarantee a good job or a successful life. More than half of the graduates will be frustrated and some of them will bite the bullet and accept any job available in foreign lands just to survive or, God forbid, suffer more.
Indeed, finishing your studies is a plus factor in landing a good job but with the stiff competition, you must be the best of the best to land that job. Have faith in yourself, in your ability; human resource personnel can easily spot an applicant with low self-esteem. Successful people such as Bill Gates experienced a number of failures in his career but he never lost faith in his ability thus, he ended up creating his own company and becoming a big success.
People who are sick are the fastest to lose faith than anybody else. In their desperation to stay alive, they will buy anything that promises cure for their sickness, no matter how expensive it is and no matter how far they have to go to acquire it. They will do anything and everything just to stay alive. When the fear of death overwhelmed them, that’s the time they lose their faith in God, the provider of healing miracle.
These people lose their patience first then their faith. They forget that whatever you take, whatever you do, and wherever you are, if you believe that you will be healed then healing will be yours. No religion can heal you; no doctor can make you return to your old healthy self; no healer can give you life but faith can make us strong and happy for the rest of our life – and the rest of our life can be longer than what we expected.
Those who are in desperate need of money tend to engage in illegal business transactions because they lose hope in earning money fair and square. Some wants instant success thus they became impatient to work harder for a better life while others lost their faith in equality of chances because of the rejections they suffered.
Having so much money is not an assurance of happiness. It indeed brings comfort in life but not fulfillment. The more we lose hope of earning money, the harder we find ways to earn it.
When I was young, I kept on telling myself that I will be rich and famous here in the Philippines. I have declined a lot of job opportunities abroad because I believed that I will be rich and famous here in our very own country. Many of my contemporaries and relative went abroad and made a good fortune there. They asked that I do the same for I was not earning enough money at that time but, I never lost that faith and belief that one day I will become rich and famous.
Then, opportunity came one after another and sooner than expected, I experienced comfort in life. Being rich is relative and debatable but being comfortable is another thing. And I am very thankful, satisfied, and fulfilled with what I have gained. But still, I was not yet famous. I did plan on entering the political arena but it is not the kind of thing I want to be famous for.
Then lo and behold, I received a gift of healing power from heaven and it made me famous in that field and the rest is history.
One way or another you will have firsthand experience of these examples and you will realize that the reason for all the failure is losing faith, giving up the fight and not finishing the race of life.
If we continue to believe and have faith in God then life will be easy. He is always there waiting for us even though sometimes we forget Him. He is there waiting to be called for help but it seems easier to seek advice from a friend. He is there for our healing but the doctors have their ways of extending life. He is there to give us wealth free of tax and interest but lending institutions are all over to devour us with their interest rate. He will always be there for us waiting when all else fails.