1Timothy 6:12 (NIV)
“Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.”
As little girls, many of us believed in fairy tales. We read them in school, we saw them on television, and many of our parents read them to us before we went to sleep at night. As much as some of us would like our lives to look and feel like what we read or saw in movies, life wasn’t created by God to be a fairytale. Even though we’d never admit it, a ton of us have bought into the idea that a prince will swoop in on a horse and rescue us from a seemingly unreachable tower. Inevitably, reality will settle in. This usually happens after some of us have kissed our fair share of toads, and it becomes increasingly clear that either we’re not the princess we thought we were, or princes just aren’t what they used to be. Either way, we’re going to have to kick fantasy to the curb and kick our faith in high gear.
Speaking of fantasies, I’m reminded of a few conversations that I’ve had with a very successful woman. In her early forties, with a six-figure income, by all accounts she’s financially secure and very savvy. She’s never been married but would very much like to be. Like most people in the world, status is very important to her, and dating someone beneath the standard of what she considers to be successful is out of the question. Lasting relationships have eluded her for most of her adult life, and she believes it is because she’s a woman of discerning and uncompromising taste.
During our conversations, we’ve talked a lot about expectations. I’ve urged her to look under the hood of her expectations and then hold them up to the microscope of God’s Word. In John 13:35(NLT), Jesus Christ taught the disciples, “Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.” In this verse, our Lord and Master tells us that those who follow him are different from those who do not. And the prominent difference he is referring to is that those who follow him love one another with God’s love. It is very important for us to let this sink in our braincells, because the truth of what Jesus Christ spoke forces us to make a decision.
As followers and believers of the Lord Jesus Christ, we can’t have one foot in the door and one out. In Matthew 6:24(NLT), he said, “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” To serve the world is to be defined by it or to let it define you. It’s to adopt the world’s standards and to measure the quality of our lives based on what society says is successful or acceptable. When we fall into this practice, our beliefs are not shaped by faith, they are shaped by the world. This means we will have chosen not to enter the realm of faith, instead we remain stuck in a realm where our beliefs are controlled by doubt and fear. So, we must understand that none of us can go higher than what we believe, and if what we believe equals lies and not the truth, we are blocked indeed.
The place for the believer who lives in the earth is inside of Christ; we’re in the world but not of it. In other words, the world serves those that are of it, and it makes no room for those who live by faith. So, when we adopt the world’s culture, standards, and behaviors, we disconnect from faith. Our believing is capped by only what we can see with our physical eyes or perceive with our senses, which disconnects a person from the miracle working power of our invisible God.
Fantasies and fairytales were birthed from the minds of people that refuse to walk by faith. They had to go to the fantastical because they were of the world, and that was the best they could do. Our God deals in the exceedingly, abundantly above anything we can ask or think, and the door to this is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the King of all kings and Lord of all lords.
A fantasy is a set of unrealistic expectations. This ultimately leads to disappointment and that’s where many beloved sisters are or have been. Some are at the point of mental, emotional, and physical exhaustion. They’re headed for a breakdown and want to give up because as young folks say, this thing called “adulting” is no joke. God didn’t design life to be complicated and weighted down with burdens. He designed life to be light and to be lived with total dependence on Him.
We might be successful in the workplace, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re successful according to God’s standard. He tells us in 2Timothy 2:15 that in order to receive His approval, we must be a good worker of His Word that is able to explain it plainly. This is the true mark of success. God didn’t intend that relationships should be meted out by worldly standards. Relationships are gifts from God that must be received in humility and gratitude. We don’t tell Him what we deserve. He knows what we deserve. He said in Jeremiah 17:10(NLT), “But I, the LORD, search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve.”
Some single women are very tempted to give up on their dream to be married to a good and Godly man. They feel like they don’t have any more fight in them. Rather than give up, look within and ask yourself whether your faith and joy is truly in God or in the man. Our Heavenly Father doesn’t disappoint. He is rich in mercy, grace, power, and love. We need to esteem our relationship with Him higher than any other. We must pray for His help to kick our faith in high gear, and we must recognize that His standard is the one that counts; not ours and certainly not the world’s. ■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
“Kick Your Faith in High Gear” written by Kim Times, edited by Fran Mack for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2022. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!