Kingdom Principle.  Faith is the foothold of the kingdom yielding unity with God and others.

1 Samuel 17:57-18:5, 18:10-16 Psalm 133 2 Corinthians 6:1-13 Mark 4:35-41

This week’s post is written by Amber Thomas-Kellner. Blessings over you, my sister of faith… May this be the first of the great writing work that is produced in you!

Faith is strengthened not in spite of our brokenness but because of it.  Anyone who has truly listened to my story has heard me confess that until a few years ago my faith in God was never a choice.  For those who don’t know, the summary is this,  I was born 3 months early and classified on my original birth certificate as a living miscarriage.  41 years later I am still living and thriving.  I was told the circumstances of my birth so often growing up that I never doubted the existence of God nor was there a time that I can ever remember not believing in Him.  I was a “miracle baby” after all.  “Who can do miracles but God” I thought in my little child brain.

Fast forward to a few years ago sitting in my pastor’s living room taking a class about Hearing God speak and it dawned on me that I had never CHOSEN to believe in Christ, I just did.  You may think that would have made me a woman of great faith, right?

I thought so too.  I was wrong.  Oh, I still believed in God, even read my bible more and came to church more often.  So I would say my belief strengthened most definitely.  My knowledge increased, even my interactions and relating with God was on deeper level but not my faith.

I say this because I still planned and worried everything to death.  When I would over plan, over think and over analyze, if there was still a possibility I would fail I would hide rather than living out my plan.  I did this so that when my plans did fail, I could say it was because I gave up. I was willing to choose to give up, but again, I never found myself ever choosing to give my life to Jesus. Somehow for me failing because I gave up was easier to take, not because I prayed about it, asked for help, tried my best and I still failed.  Maybe because I was the only one to blame.  I had a lot more in common with Saul in the 1 Samuel passage than I like to admit, I was completely ruled by fear.

Fast forward to a couple of months ago when my pastor again sent us a survey about the next steps our fellowship was considering.  Had I known then that marking the “unsure” box meant I would have still been placed in a leadership trio I would have marked “No.”  I would have felt safer but my faith would not have grown. And yet here I am writing this post, leading this Sunday in a trio and my faith in God, in others, and myself as grown.

Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Faith is taking the first step even though you can’t see the whole staircase.”  I completely believe this.  Look at the passages for this week, they exemplify it well. Starting with the 1 Samuel passage that illustrates what happens when we come from fear.  (Saul being afraid of David and trying to kill him)  Or coming from Faith (Jonathan loving David as himself and giving his birthright to David)    When Paul is writing to the church at Corinth the entire letter is an expression of faith.  He is stating what he has done in faith and asking Corinth to do the same in Faith and Unity with him.

Then, lastly the Mark passage starts in Fear and ends in Faith.  (“Teacher do you not care that we about to parish?”…  “This is the Son of God even the mighty wind listens.)

I have heard somewhere that when a bone gets broken it heals stronger that was before.  I do not know if this is valid scientifically but what a beautiful image it creates when applied to Faith in God, The very things that we consider ugly or bad and broken and often we are tempted to hide are the very things that if we share with God and others will make the relationships deeper and stronger than before.  I hope I remember that more of the time, don’t you?