"Just keep the faith"

All of us have found our self at times when our situation is not meeting our aspiration, sometimes by a lot. Whether it is related to finances, our relationships, our health, our goals, etc., well meaning people come along beside us and say, "just keep the faith." Now, they are well meaning, but what do they really mean?

The carnal mind makes sense of this encouragement by assuming that if we keep trying, keep persevering, then we can finally get the outcome we want. Our culture reinforces this with movies like "Rudy", whose theme is "one can have their dream if they just keep after it, don't ever give up." While there is nothing wrong with trying hard (the Bible tells us to persevere), its just this relationship between us trying hard and ultimately landing our dream is a lie of the world's system. In reality Rudy did not reach his dream through his own efforts and just keeping the faith. Others had to act on his behalf because he was not skilled enough to accomplish his dream (playing football at Notre Dame). The fallacy in the carnal mind with "just keep the faith" is the assumption the power is in our faith in our self and/or in others.

The Kingdom mind informs us that the power of faith is in the object of the faith. For example, if we wish to walk out on a frozen pond, what determines whether we sink or not is not how much we believe the pond is frozen but the actual degree to which IT IS FROZEN. While we are told to act in faith, (1) the faith we have was first given to us by God and (2) the validity of the faith is in the object of the faith, not the strength of the faith holder. God desires our well being, but that is not defined by us or our circumstances. He is always working in us for His good pleasure (Philippians 2). He determines what is good, not our dreams. In fact our prayer should be that He give us our dream and then we can be assured we will ultimately receive it. In the final analysis God's "dream" for us is to live a life that trusts in Him, not our circumstances for our well being.

This is really GOOD NEWS in that none of us can hold our circumstances together forever, even if they seemed perfect for us.  So when someone comes along side of you and says, "just keep the faith," let your mind go to the One who is faithful, smile, and say, "He does!!!!"

Certainly something worth pondering ....