Faith

"Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer." - Matthew 21:21-22

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jews, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed - a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith." - Romans 1:16-17

"And without faith, it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him."- Hebrews 11:6

The past few months, God has been teaching me that his love for me isn't based on my performance. 

Although I keep saying this, it's taking me a while to truly understand what this means. I have a tendency to be a perfectionist at times (well, most of the times). However, I'm slowly learning that God doesn't look for perfect performance. Instead, he looks at my heart. When no one can see them, he cares about my motives and my intentions. When he calls me to do something, I just have to obey and try. It doesn't have to be perfect because God will qualify the called. However, until this weekend I didn't realize that I've been focusing more on my performance rather than focusing on making my heart right before God. It gets quite discouraging once you start focusing on your performance because you're bound to make a mistake somewhere. 

And sometimes what God tells us to do doesn't make logical sense. During the conference we had a message on Genesis 22:18 when God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. It must have made no sense to Abraham. God promised Abraham descendants numerous as the stars. Without Isaac, how was God going to fulfill his promise? However, Abraham chose to trust God. He chose to obey God. He chose to hope in God. 

In the same way, as follows of Christ, we choose to hope in God despite our circumstances. I hope that I can choose to obey God with the faith Abraham had. There are some things God has placed in my heart that seem impossible at this moment. However, I want to choose to trust God. I want to trust to take a leap of faith, knowing that the results are all in God's hands. For nothing is impossible with God.