the kind of faith I want...

2012… it’s a blank page- a new year of hopes, dreams, goals, resolutions, commitments, adventures… but I also know that for some it’s a new year of questions, doubts, fears, and frustrations. I’m kind of somewhere in the middle if I were being honest, but I’m trying to lean more to the optimistic side. I’m learning the value of change, that growth can come from transition, and that faith is best cultivated when living in the unknown. And I’m constantly being reminded that my perspective on my circumstances needs to be deeply rooted in who scripture says God is.

I came across the most fitting description of what faith should look like when you’re living in the fog of the unknown… the kind of faith I strive for. It’s words that Peter used to encourage fellow believers of his time while they were going through a season where it was hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. He writes of their steadfast faith…

“Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy…” {1 Peter 1:8}

We can take this verse at face value and interpret the word for seen/see as strictly “to perceive with your eyes”… but the beauty of the original languages of scripture is that there’s usually a deeper meaning… one that might resonate a little stronger with us. Here, for instance, the word translated seen/see can also mean “to perceive with your mind, to recognize, to detect or notice.” Forgive my boldness in taking liberty to paraphrase God’s Word, but in the context of this second definition, this verse could also read…

“Though you struggle to recognize and notice God’s work in your life, you still choose to love him; and even though right now in this moment you can’t detect that God’s hand is active in your circumstances, you still believe in His presence in your life and are filled with a deep and overwhelming joy…”

I love this. I want to be defined by this. In the darkest seasons… or the loneliest seasons… or the most confusing seasons… we can still have hope and choose to believe in God’s goodness and in His love for us. Even if we are blind to what God is doing in and through us, we can choose to trust. Even if things aren’t resolved or righted here on earth, we have the ultimate promise of restoration and redemption in heaven. THAT is something to have joy in, the type of joy that nothing and no one can steal.

This year, no matter what life may look like, may we rest in this unwavering faith based on the character of who God is and in His promises that are ours through our faith in Him and in what Jesus Christ has already done for us… may we know this inexpressible and glorious joy…