I’ve been thinking a bit about this practice of faith. This terra-forming of the physical time and space our souls inhabit – this God -shaping of our lives so that we realize what is already true. We inhabit a heavenly space that some day we will also inherit and that we are even now in the process of inheriting.
Think of it- if you or I were suddenly? to inherit a fortune wouldn’t we need some time to get used to the idea, and some training in how to interact with that new wealth and power? Wouldn’t a sensible testator leave trustees who would teach us and slowly release the funds to us as we learned our lessons and showed that we were able to rightly use what was being entrusted to us?
Isn’t that what God has done: giving us all things in Christ Jesus and in addition giving us the Holy Spirit to teach us how to become righteous stewards of our new wealth?
Proverbs 30:7-9 points out that we are incapable of rightly handling poverty or wealth. Either we become prideful or desperate and in neither case do we make wise choices.
If this is true of material riches (or lack) how much more is it true of our interaction with much more valuable spiritual grace?
We are too easily fooled by ourselves into thinking that we don’t need God or into despondency and despair not recognizing his good gifts. We cannot handle God’s amazing depth of grace unless he doles it out to us slowly, leading us to recognize it and rely upon it more and more as we begin God-shaping in our daily lives.
The process of faith is the process of the slow opening of the soul’s eyes to see that everything we see and do is of grace. Every breath, every night’s sleep, every new morning come from his hand. Slowly (so slowly) we learn that our lives must be constantly oriented with that understanding if we are to be whole. Slowly we learn to turn towards God throughout the day, constantly reorienting ourselves until we find that we are making God shaped circuits through time.
Waking in Praise
Eating with thanksgiving
Sacrificing the things that hold us back,
Repenting, confessing, Forgiving and Being Forgiving
Stepping each moment knowing that we have enough because He is enough.
This is faith.
