“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” Hebrew 11:1

When i left high school, home and headed for Kenya, I was scared, unsure of where i was heading. It was pretty exciting to leave home and define who I was, and at the same time, I wanted to stay back and fix some relationships that had just started blossoming. Like every young person, we fight with our parents, grandparents, siblings and guardians because we seem to know better than them. However, I wanted to make amends for the pain and hurt I had made my family go through, but had not time. 

The most comforting thing that pushed me ahead was the reassurance of God in his word that ‘I know the plans i have for you…plans to prosper you and not harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future’ Jeremiah 29:11. Those simple words, allowed me to know that God saw the desire in my heart, and i knew then that i must have faith in him to make everything right. I had to believe him in even the most uncomprehending situations, that he had a better plan in mind for me.

Most often, when we walk through life with everything at our disposal, we praise ourselves. However, when trials come, we lose heart, because we were unprepared for the worst. I always think of faith as a mystery that needs to be investigated. The pieces don’t usually fit together in a puzzle, but you keep believing that they will come together somehow. A detective will follow all clues in an investigation, trusting that the clues lead to the big picture. I live my life, in expectant of the bigger picture although i do not see it yet. I believe God has called me for greater things than what i see today. The experiences i have gone through, the hardships and violations are all a part of a greater plan that i know God has for me. 

I would like to encourage anyone out there who is falling apart, believing that there is no hope. Do not look at what people have and think they have it all. Ask yourself this question ‘what if there is something out there bigger than what i see right now? What if there’s more to my life than the reality? What if i was meant for a greater purpose than this?’ Pick yourself right up and have faith in the impossible. We are reminded in Hebrews 11:2-38 of great men and women, who in faith, followed God’s voice and believed in the plans he had for them than the plans they had for their lives. Many like Moses ‘chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time’. Many of them followed in faith, but ‘none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

One last thing i would like to mention is a concern over policies around us. In cases that can be avoided to terminated as easily as they come, people try to problematized the issues, looking at them from different angles, critically analyzing them. It is all good and all the understand these issues. However, if half the time is spent debating over our different ideas, then the essence of the argument will be lost. Faith is looking at the long term consequences of our actions, but if every solution to our contemporary issues is doomed to fail because our leaders lack faith, then it shall fail. The effectiveness of a project will not be felt overnight, but with faith, continual fertilization, the impact will be felt in the long term. Faith is all about believing in what you do not see. Once we begin seeing things with our hearts rather than our eyes and mind, then we will begin to move forward.

“For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. But God found fault with the people and said: The time is coming, declares the Lord, when i will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant i made with their forefathers when i took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and i turned away from them, declares the Lord. This is the covenant i will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘know the Lord’, because they will all know me, from the least of them tot eh greatest. For i will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” Hebrews 8:7-12

It is amazing at how many truths the Bible holds, and yet we often try to come up with answers to questions we are absolutely clueless of. How many times have you had the New Testament questioned? How many times have you met people refusing to go to church on Sunday because they said God rested on the Sabbath? How many times have you found people stock in the Old Testament declaring other Christians to be at fault, because they have ‘supposedly’ missed one of the laws? When we spend time reading God’s word, we find answers to questions we have been asking our elders, those who found faith before us. 

Just because they found faith before you does not mean they hold the answers to all your questions. It clearly states in Hebrews 8:7-8 ‘For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. But God found fault with the people and said: The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.” God saw that the covenant written on tablets was easily abandoned and he knew he had to do something about it, if the people were suppose to walk in faith with him. If the law given to Moses in the Old Testament had no fault in it, God would not have had to make the New Testament. God saw that the law was powerless because it weakened by the flesh. The people did not remain faith to God and each of them turned to their own way. Hence he declared a new covenant.

Recently, I asked a man if he went to church, and he said “I used to, but stopped.” I asked him why and he said “The Christians have corrupted God’s law.” What do you mean? “I am a Roman Catholic and I have read the Bible and try to read it at least 2-3 times a week. When God gave the commandments, he said to respect the Sabbath, but Christians have declared Sunday to be the day of rest. Sunday is actually the first day of the week. The Sabbath is Sunday. God made the world and rested on the seventh day and declared it a Sabbath”. We talked some more, but the whole time I realized how little of God’s grace he knew and how little of the New Testament he knew. Not saying i had the answers to everything, but my heart cried out at the fact that he would deny fellowship with believers because one of the commandments according to him was not kept. 

Another thing that struck me was the fact that he was not able to accept grace. Why should God pay attention to people who crucified his son? He refused to have someone else take care of his sins and said he was responsible for the wrongs he has done. How could a man like that know so much about God and yet deny the hand that offers him freedom? 

The Old testament shouldn’t be disregarded, but it has been made obsolete, through the new covenant. “I will put my laws in tier minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their god, and they will be my people…For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” We are the ones who remember our sins and put ourselves in a prison. God offers much more than that. He offers you freedom through his son Jesus Christ. You don’t need to do good works, refurnish your life for him to accept you. He already accepted you when you recognized that you were a mess. You are the only one holding yourself back. Let go and take the hand extending to you.