Oh Ye of Little Faith
This morning my daily reading was focused was on Proverbs chapter 16. There is so much wisdom in this book. I think that I could read Proverbs again and again and always find something new. I would like to share with you the verses that really spoke to me this morning. I entitled today’s entry Oh Ye of Little Faith because I believe that as believers and followers of Christ, God wants us to step out in faith. I hope that this will encourage you in some way today!
“Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.” Proverbs 16:3 Has God ever given you a vision? What did you do with that? Did you step out in faith and take action or did you just sit there and say to yourself, “If it is supposed to happen it will grow legs and move forward.” God wants us to succeed. He wants us to have faith, even if it is just as small as a mustard seed. At our church there has been talk about adding on a multipurpose room with some additional classrooms. It is a vision that some share and others don’t. Those who share this vision want to see the church grow, they want to see more community outreach, they believe that we could be a part in something bigger then ourselves. It would be a great opportunity to really outreach to the youth, that next generation that is coming up! Then there are those in the other camp. Those who think things are fine the way they are. It is almost as if they are against change and growth. This is the camp that worries about the money and how much of a nest egg needs to sit in the bank.
In my mind, the two groups could come together and reach a happy medium. I do believe that it is should be the church’s vision to grow and outreach. After all, the money sitting in the bank is not the church’s, it belongs to God! We need to be committed to the Lord and take action.
I had a conversation once with some women in our church kitchen. They were dreaming about that new addition to the church and really getting excited. They were talking about how the kitchen should be set up and how it could be made more functional so that we could serve more people. But then the vision was lost. Someone said, “But I don’t think we will ever get the money to do that.” I looked at this dear woman and asked her why not? With God all things are possible and we have to be willing to step out in faith.
Sometimes I think that the term stepping out in faith has been lost somewhere in the deep, dark closets of society. I see it in our church and across the nation. The church will die without vision. Without growth, Christianity will die. God wants us to call on Him and believe. We need a fire lit underneath us to get us going!
Let me give you another example. Our Liberian adoption. When God gave our family this vision, we could have said that it would be impossible to pull together that kind of money. We could have listened to others who said this will be impossible. We could have listened to those who said you can’t bring a child from Africa into your home. But our faith was bigger then that. God gave us a vision of what He wanted us to do. In order for that plan to succeed, we had to step out in faith and take action to make it happen. God has done amazing things with our adoption. He has brought a whole community of believers together and gave them the vision too. Our boys will be coming home only because we had faith enough to believe and move forward.
“In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps,” Proverbs 16:9 So God gave us the vision and we prayed and planned our course. God determined how we would move forward. He brought certain people into our lives that shared a similar vision for bringing our boys home. God stirred desires in peoples hearts so that they would give through prayers, support and financially. God made it happen. But if we would have said no, we would have never birthed these precious boys into our hearts.
“There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death,” Proverbs 16:25 If we would have said no to God’s vision for our family because it didn’t seem financially possible, our adoption would have ended up in death. Not physical death, but death of what God had planned for us. God isn’t going to make us do anything. He will give us opportunities, but we have to make the choice if we are going to make it happen. God did not make us puppets. He gave us our own minds so that we could make choices in our lives.
So today I encourage you to take action. Throw yourself at the foot of the cross and say “Yes, Lord!” Take those baby steps forward and walk in faith. Trust what you can not see. Help God’s kingdom grow by believing in what God is stirring up inside of you!
My name is Sonya. I wear many hats in my house! I am the loving wife of Russell and the mother of 10 beautiful children and waiting for our precious son in Liberia, Daniel. So really, I am the mother of 11! In January of 2008 we brought home 3 brothers from Liberia. Daniel is their uncle and we are working on bringing him home now. I home school our children with the help and support of my wonderful husband. I am making an attempt at writing which has been a wonderful pass time when I can find the time! I am a new graduate from She Speaks, which is a ministry from 
Sonya -
Thank you so much for this devotional today. It was exactly where I needed to focus my thinking. I laid several important things at the Cross today after doing the devotional you had written. You are such a tremendous light for the Lord and salt to this earth. I am so blessed to be able to call you friend and so very blessed by your walk in the Lord. Please continue to put your thoughts into words because the scriptures and wisdom the that the Lord gives you, feeds my soul. I love you girl!
Stacey
Thanks for the reminder to step out in faith! It is easy to forget that God calls us to do just that. Love ya!
Reflections from “the other camp”
I appreciate your enthusiasm for the church and your desire to be faithful.
My vision for our church is that it grows in spiritual strength, victory and numbers. My opposition to building now has nothing to do with protecting a nest egg of money or lack of faith in what God can do. It has to do with the house needing to be put in order before it is expanded.
I believe our house is on a shaky foundation in some key areas. 1) The use of a gender-neutral translation (the Bible does need to be translated well into the common language of the people, but to suggest that it’s okay to gender-neutralize it, change it, to make it readable or acceptable is to perhaps lack faith). 2) The support of an altered teaching of divorce (God gave clear guidelines and to alter them out of a human understanding of what is loving, compassionate and understanding is to deny the power of God to heal, restore and produce victory). 3) The support of the removal of the terms “inerrant” and “infallible” for scripture (evangelical churches and ministries that are growing and seeing the power of God manifested use these terms, liberal churches that sound so good in their humanistic teachings but are dying do not). 4) The refusal to support a clear loving statement about homosexuality (when Lazurus was raised from the dead his smelly rags had to be removed. Yes, the church is full of people with smelly rags being removed - we are all in that condition. But we must not deny God’s truth about what He has identified as smelly rags. We are to be loving and understanding, but if we say what God has called a sin is not a sin, then we leave the believer wrapped in filthy rags that God wants to deliver them from. In I. Cor. 13:6, love “finds no joy in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth”).
Before we are ready to build, I believe we as a church need to grow in the application of the four lessons given to Joshua in Joshua 1:6-9. 1) Be bold 2) Be strong 3) Know God’s Word 4) Obey God’s Word.
And Psalm 129:1, “Unless the Lord builds a house, its builders labor over it in vain…”
James 2:17″…faith, if it doesn’t have works, is dead by itself.” Perhaps many in this “other camp” who stand accused of lacking faith and vision (maybe even the woman of whom you spoke) have already demonstrated their faith through the role they played in building our current facility. Strong emotional attachments to the old building (a place of weddings, funerals, the location of buried loved ones) had to be dealt with. Many gave nearly every Saturday and many weekday evenings through two years to see the project through to completion. Perhaps it is not approriate to suggest that those who played a role in bulding the current facility think things are “fine the way they are”, of being “against change and growth”, and being worried about money and “how much of a nest egg needs to sit in the bank”.
Finally, about Proverbs 16:3. The direction our church takes must be weighed with scripture and with what others believe is God’s vision.
Thanks for your concern for our church and that we faithfully follow God’s will.
Karl Stout
Hey Karl. (I got the spelling right!!!) Thanks for your words. First of all, I do agree with you about where we need to grow stronger: 1. be bold, 2. be strong, 3. know God’s word and 4. obey God’s word. When I gave the story of the woman who didn’t think it could be done, it was almost as if she forgot what stepping out in faith meant. Like she forgot what happened when our current church was built. I was not a part of the church at that point, but I know there must have been a tremendous stepping out in faith. We need a revival in our church. At times looking at it, it seems as if it is dead. We need to experience a hunger for Christ! An excitement for Christ! It is almost as if it has become stagnant. I would love to see us get a strong youth leader in place so the youth can grow. They are the future of the church. I would love to have a multipurpose room so we could really reach out to the community….last night they had over 20 people playing basketball! Those young men that were playing (along with the one old man….as Russ put it!)could be reached. If these guys started coming on a weekly basis, then before or after play, devotionals could be done! We could bring some of them to Christ. I would love to see the kids have their own worship time downstairs with a projector on the wall like upstairs. I would love to see an active men and women’s ministry over flowing with excitement for Christ! Teaching God’s word and reaching out to men and women through small groups and one on one. It is all in the approach and building relationships. Karl, I am not against you…I think it is just the approach. I think we need to build the relationships and disciple. I hope you weren’t offended by my entry. I love the Lord and I want to take as many people to the kingdom of Heaven with me as possible. I think if we can start building stronger programs within the body, then we can take those and start building relationships and start discipling in love…Those of us who are close in our walks need to reach out and help get these started. Karl, I think you are a wonderful teacher…I would love to see you use the skills that God has given you! You have a compassionate heart for Christ…I would love to see you work along side with Russ with trying to get the men’s ministry up and going. I would love to see you building relationships with the men and discipling along side of them. You have a lot to offer. That is how the church can grow stronger. Take action in that way! It is an action out of love. Yes, we do need to remove those smelly wrappings, but do it in a way that is through relationship building. I am not a liberal and am not on the liberal fence, I want the things you want, but do it in a way that will really reach the people. Thanks again for your thoughts. You always give me good insite!
(Sonya, I posted this under your newest entry, but I believe it fits better here. Sorry about that!)
I believe the greatest goal our church could reach for is to find that common ground you mentioned. I highly doubt we will all ever agree on every issue. Maybe one day in heaven we will know who was right and who was wrong about these issues, but for now we can only turn to the ultimate source, God’s word, and use all of the intelligence, “common sense,” and convictions which God has given us as we make our own decisions.
Perhaps the greatest struggle is to realize that God’s true vision for the church may be a culmination of Karl’s vision, Sonya’s vision, my vision, Chuck’s vision, Bea Brown’s vision…..Then again, maybe God’s vision is on a whole new level which none of us have seen. I know that God is pleased as long as we are selflessly striving to find His vision.
Where in the bible does it say “Oh ye of little faith”
Matthew 8:26 and Matthew 14:31 have that phrase in them.