What Does it Mean to Have Faith? #2

What does it really mean to have faith when your circumstances are screaming the opposite? Is it just blind optimism, or something much deeper?

In this episode of The Truth Unpacked, Rev. Sereta Collington tackles one of the most foundational—and often misunderstood—aspects of our walk with God: faith. We're moving beyond clichés to explore the biblical definition of faith and what it looks like in our daily lives.

Join us as we discuss the difference between simply believing in God and actively believing in God. You'll learn how to hold onto trust in an instant-gratification world and discover practical, actionable steps to feed your faith, especially when fear and doubt try to take over.

If you're ready to build a faith that is more than just a feeling, this episode is for you.

Be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode of The Truth Unpacked.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Is fate a feeling? Or is it a wish? Or maybe it's closing our eyes and hoping that something happened? We use the word fate a lot. But what does it really mean for us to step out in faith? Welcome back to the Chuton Pack and thank you for joining me today. In this episode, we are going to explore what fate really means. What does it mean to have fate? I don't know about you, but many times in my life I have heard that phrase. Have fate. Have fate. Or your fate should be driving you. Have you heard that before? For me, the first time in my life I truly understand what it means to have faith in God, or what it means for the foundation of her faith, is when I had to take my grandma off a life-giving machine. My grandma had been in the machine for a long time. This was my best friend, my ride and guy partner. She was just a light of my life. And but now she was in the hospice and the machine was up and out of breed. And now the decision comes down for us to take her off that machine. When the decision came, I could not say yes to it. It didn't feel fair. I was selfish. I wanted my grandma to stay here. And I prayed and asked God to bring a change into our life. Was my prayer being answered? I asked God to not allow her to breed on her home. The funny thing is, I didn't really think about it. But I was praying and asking God to help my grandma to stop breeding on her home, to let her wake up. But I still allowed him to keep the machine to breed for her. I spoke to my pastor about my concern one day and he said to me, Well, if you trust God, if you have faith in God, you gotta allow God to do what God wants to do. If you take her off that machine, everything will be up to God. If he wants her to breathe again, she will breathe again. But if he's ready to take his daughter home, he will take his daughter home. Wow. For the first time in my life, I have to truly surrender to my faith. A faith that I have held for such a long time. I've been going to church, I've been hearing about faith, but to actually act out in faith, that was a whole new ball game. Well, I remember that weekend we decided to take my grandma off the machine. Now it's time to put faith into action. And so we took her off the machine and we waited. For a brief moment she was there. But I thought, whoa, that's all I needed to do. And God would have let her breathe. But nah, she died a few moments later. But what does that mean for my faith? Did I get mad at God? Absolutely not. See, I've been through so much in my life by this time that I I've started truly understand what it means to let go and let God. But she was the best part of my relationship with God. She brought me up in church, she teached me who we were, and now I just had to remember that she already trusts God, so I can too. And so when we examine fate between biblical faith and cultural faith, we see a huge difference. In the biblical faith, they try to think of fate like something of a magic trick, it's something of um having bold optimism, right? Like jumping off a cliff because you have faith. Nah, that's not biblical fate, that's cultural fate. Okay, so today we are going to look at what biblical fate means. And I am going to use the book of Ebus, chapter 11, verses 1, to discuss that. Here in Ebus chapter 11, verses 1, the New Living's translation says, Faith show the reality of what we hope for. It is the evidence of things we cannot see. Woo! Verses 2, going down a little bit more. Verses 2 said, True faith, true dear faith, the people in the days of old earn a good reputation. Yeah. So faith is special, but it's more than just belief. When we have faith in God, we are surrendering everything in his hand, no matter how it looks in our head. That's the biblical foundation of faith. It's not guessing, it's not open, it's not wishing. It's the assurance that the God who loves you will show up for you. Yes, I know it's not easier. It's more easier said than done. I have been to pure in my life where I knew God, I love God, but my faith in God, it was flattered. I didn't understand that faith is not just asking and getting what you want from God, it's trusting that even when we don't get it, the God who said he's doing all things for her good will do all things for our good. But I want to distinguish a little bit between believing God exists and having faith in him. Having faith in God was where I was when I have to take my grandma off the machine. Actually, it was more of believing, all right? Because I believe in God, I knew God exists, I love God, I serve him, I surrender to him. But I was scared. I didn't know if I could trust taking my grandma off that machine, you know, if I would be able to see her again. Now, believing in a chair, you sometimes let's look at believing in a chair can hold you versus going over to the chair and sitting right in it. That's faith. And so, why do we find faith so hard right now? Why is it so hard to struggle with faith? We live in a society of instant gratification, you know. We use Amazon so that we can get stuff the next day. We use instant message, waiting in God seems really hard. And society makes it seem like waiting in God means God says no, but that's not true. Waiting in God is what our fate allows us to do because the Bible tells us the reality of what we hope for, so we hope that God will show up for us no matter what time he shows up for us. Back to Hebrews 11 again. It said, it's the evidence of things we cannot see so many times into God will God show us where we can trust him, and it is timing, is timing. I don't know if you know the story of Abraham and Sarah, right? Now, Abram was called by God to take a new adventure away from his family while he was on this adventure. God brought him even more miracles and blessings. But one of the promises of God is that Abram was going to be the father of all these nations, multiple nations, right? But Abraham was a whole man, and so was his wife. They were both too whole to have children. So when God brings this promise to them, it seemed unrealistic that they in their old age can have children, but yet after a while, sorry believed and abram believe what God said will be done. But the waiting is the problem now in Genesis chapter say 17 to 18, we get to see the whole story played out where God promised Sarah his son, and in verses 18, he comes and he promised, but Sarah did not believe. But in verses, in Genesis chapter 17 to 18, we see the entire story playing out. God promised Abraham anyway that he was going his descendants was going to be like the stars in the heaven. But it took a long time for Sarah to actually have a son. Why did God wait so long? Why didn't God give Sarah the son right then? And that's how God operates. He doesn't do things within human timing. But here is what happened. If you don't know the story, read a little bit about it. But in the story, Sarah decided she could not wait on God. What taking God so long to grant her this son? She be like, I need this is impossible for a whole lady like me to have a baby. So she went and intervened and she got her servant Agar to went and sleep with her husband and give her a son. She is like, maybe this is what God planned when he said that you got to have. Now, Sarah, she did not mess up the entire plan of God, and that's the beautiful thing about how much God loved us. Now, when he planned something good for us, he makes it happen. It doesn't matter what we do and our ability to not wait in God, God still makes it happen. And so though Sarah intervenes, God still allows us to have a son later on. But faith is trusting in God's timing. It's knowing that if God promised something, it will be done. More than ever today, we have to truly see and accept how to trust and have faith in God. God is not only said something will happen, it will happen. His word does not return void to him. As I looked at the story of Habram and Sarah, I am learning that not only should we trust God, but we have to truly let go and believe that things will happen. I am saying this because I want to see how the real life application of fate played out in our life on Tuesday or on Wednesday. Or, you know, during the week when our bill shows up, when we are going through a major lifetime of trouble. Just remember, fate is not the absence of fear. It's holding on to fate during the time of fear. And that's literally what it means when people talk about fate over fear. It simply means fear will come. Fear exists in your situation. I was scared to take my grandma off that machine. I was scared that I would lose her. Eventually I did. But my faith says God knew what was best for her. That's how we find our faith. It's hard sometimes to see how fate operates in today's world when we need it to happen instantly. I often think back in the story of Abraham and Sarah. Why didn't God bring Isaac immediately? But God wanted to wait. He wanted him to come at a right time. God may want him to be born in a current season or month. God may be waiting for a leader to be changed. God may be waiting for something to be built. He knows exactly when he wants Sarah to start having children. But she did something to try to intervene with God's plan. All of us sometimes does that because we want to be in control with our life. We can't always just let go and let something happen. We want to do something. Doing something keep us in control, right? But we must learn that faith is not just believing that God will answer or help us in the manner or way he said, it's knowing that he will. That's where I am learning in my faith right now. This was a long time ago. I had to take my grandma off that machine. But I have taken many steps of faith in my life. And the more I take that step, the risks that comes with it, the fear that comes with it. But once I take that step, it strengthened my faith. It helped me to be bolder and better in my walk with God. Because I did it before and it comes right back. Come on. It's a beautiful experience to take that risk and trust in God. I'm not saying go take a risk, go jump off a clip and think somebody's gonna catch you. That's not the type of face I'm talking about, okay? But trust that if God said He's gonna do something in their life, He will. The most important thing we must trust God for is when He said He promises everlasting life. And knowing that we should keep walking in our faith because we know everlasting life is promised to all of us. Amen. I want to share three things that you can do now to help you to grow in your faith. These are just practical steps, but as I share over and over again, is that it's about asking God to be the one to bring you the answer. I am just a human being. I am sharing my experience with you. God may want you to do something additional to these steps. Pray about it and ask for God for clarity. Ask Him to show you or to have more faith in Him. But in the meantime, here are some practical steps that you can take to carry with you. The first one is feed your faith. Yes, that means feeding your faith, reading the Word of God, looking at stories in the Bible like Abraham and Sarah to remind you that you can trust God. Read the word of God. The Bible also tells us in Romans chapter 10, 17, it says, Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. The more you read God's word and the story of how we shows up in people's life, is the more you're feeding your faith to trust in God. Remember one thing. Fate is not sitting still. You have to act it out. So that's the second thing you have to do. Take a step of faith while you are worried, while you are scared, just like I was. But I take that act of faith to remove her from the machine. Take a hack of faith. Step out and do that thing God is calling you to do. Step out and leave that relationship God is calling you to leave. Trust that He will provide. If He called you to do it, He will be dealing with you. But trust in God typing. God is not an ASAP God, He's an on-time God. And so we have a trust in His timing, no matter how hard it may be. Eventually, when God did it, it's always the best time. And finally, keep a faith journal. If you are doing a regular journaling like I do in my daily journaling, but in the beginning of the month, I leave a blank page for my testimony. Why? Because when I write down my testimony or write down my answer prior, when I am feeling down, frustrated, I can always go back and look at those things and remind me that God shows up for me back then. He will show up for me now. Having a fake journal helps us to look back at all the times that God shows up. In the moment when you are feeling frustrated, when you are feeling like, I can't do this. You can grab your journal and read about some of the times God shows up for you. I made it easier for me. I just use one journal and every month I leave a blank page for my testimony. And then when I'm feeling done, I just grab that journal and go chew that friend's first monthly page of all the months. So that I'm reminded of how God makes a way out of Norway. A faith is a big word, but it means more than just a few letters. It means truly depending on one who is created in you, trusting in the one who created you. And know that He's Word will never leave a void and He is always with us. I cannot tell you to have more faith. But if you practice these things, seeking God in His Word, keeping a fate journal and step out and act, take that risk and act, then I know you will experience a faith. But just remember, faith is active trust in who God is in every situation that you are being experienced. But as you go out today, I want you to reflect on one era of your life, which I challenge you to look at one era of your life right now that you are fear. Turn that fear into faith by just laying all your chests out to God and say, God, whatever you say, so be it. That's the type of faith that will continue to please God and will cope you to grow. Thank you so much for coming and joining me today. And I pray that you learn something about faith, something that will move your faith, encourage your faith, and allow you to step out in faith. If you would enjoy this episode, share it with someone. Don't forget to subscribe and share it with somebody you know needed encouragement into their faith today. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your divine reminder today of what faith is. Thank you for your son Jesus Christ, who brought a new revelation of how we can walk in faith. As I pray with all those who are listening with me right now, may you grant us an increase in our faith. Help us to trust in you no matter how difficult it may be. Open our eyes to see and know that you are our God and that all things that you do for us is for our good. I pray especially for those who are struggling in their faith and understanding who your son Jesus Christ is. May you build up their faith and send forth new wisdom and understanding to walk with them. I ask also that you forgive us for the time that we have not fully had faith in you. To forgive us for the time that we have not trusted you and we seek to intervene on our own. Forgive us, Lord, and help us going forth for today, that we would trust in you with all our heart, all our mind, and lean not in our own understanding. Thank you, Lord, for hearing and answering our prayer. In Jesus' mighty name I pray. Amen. That's it for this episode. Until next time, keep seeking, keep asking, and keep unpacking the truth. God bless you.