“If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.” Isaiah 7:9
Nearly two years ago my family and I flew across the country to be at the birth of the baby we would later adopt. Throughout that entire plane ride and drive to the hospital, my heart was shaking. What would we do if the birth mother changed her mind at the last minute? How would I comfort my wife if all this fell apart? How would I make sure our older daughter knew she was secure? How would I deal with the loss of a baby we had been praying about and planning to bring home for months? My wife and I knew we could not do this on our own strength, but we reminded each other that we could stand firm in the faith, that God promises to be with us, that he will strengthen us, and that our God would hold us up.
That is just one example from my own life, but how about you? What experiences are shaking your faith today?
For a mother straining to show grace and patience with a toddler at the end of a long day, there seems to be nothing firm under her feet. But she can stand firm on the promise of God to give us the strength of the Holy Spirit to resist sin and show the love and patience we have been shown in Christ. When we sit across from a doctor giving us news we don’t know how to bear, there seems nothing firm under our feet. But we can stand firm in our faith that God has promised to work all things for our good, even when we cannot see what he can see in that moment.
We shake the most in the winds of trial when the roots of our confidence are in something other than faith in the promises of God. Every other foundation will crumble under the weight of our fear. Far too often the comfort of the promises of God become our last resort instead of our first and only stronghold.
A few days before we were to finalize the adoption with the court in Florida over a telephone, we almost had to reschedule because we could not find a notary who would come to our house early in the morning. We had called every mobile notary in Seattle and checked with friends and co-workers who might have notary licenses. Nothing was coming together and rescheduling would have been an emotional blow. By now we had seen God open up so many doors that should have closed. We knew that even if something went wrong at this point that he would give us the strength we needed to persevere. Then our phone rang. It was a notary. She lived five minutes from our house. She attended Mars Hill Church and heard we needed help, although we had never met. She did not want any money, she just wanted to help. A few days later as she swore us in with the judge over the phone she realized she knew him. She was from Jacksonville, Florida, the same city where Maya had just been born.
Throughout our adoption process God showed us over and over again that if you are firm in faith, you will stand firm through it all.
