Friday Fight 74 - Diluted Faith

Every Friday, when I wake and pray, God places something on my heart to help me fight darkness beginning in our minds. Today is FF74.

We all struggle with baggage. Over time we pray and work, allowing God to remove our emotional scars, physical pains, and mental blocks that sins imposed against ourselves and on others. We pray, read the Word, talk to people, and learn to let things go or surrender to God. But what happens next?

Diluted Faith:

Let's look at the word 'dilute' and why it's essential to dilute something. Dilution is taking something very concentrated and purposefully making it less concentrated. For chemicals, yes, we need to dilute and weaken their strength. But it isn't something we want to do with our faith. So when we pray to God for healing, supplication, repentance, or wisdom, why do we still carry those things we lifted to Him in prayer? Each time we pray and still worry, it dilutes our faith.

God places lessons on my heart through prayer. They become lessons after the struggles, corrections, or healing God allows me to experience, learn from, then share with others. In all seriousness, I have often referred to these lessons as "Friday Firsts" because God graciously allows me to first experience, then share.

For the past year, I have been praying for healing and clarity in a specific area of my family. I experienced a few spiritual shifts during this time where I felt God was answering my prayers. Finally, over the last month, I saw firsthand the transformation, yet I watched with confusion and, to be honest, a slight annoyance. Why would it feel chaotic to watch something covered in prayer unfold? Perhaps I was irritated because I only saw my perspective, not the bigger picture of what God was doing. I was letting my mind go to places my spirit had no business visiting. I could feel the gentle correction of the Holy Spirit as I postured myself before beautiful layers of forgiveness, covering multiple coats of anger and shame with my annoyance. The Holy Spirit of Truth and Guidance was healing, repairing, rebuilding, and removing the ugliness of sin. How can we be so confident in God's grace and power in one area but not another? Yet, perhaps like me, we allow our flesh to dilute our faith in specific areas because we only see things from our perspective.

The greatest trick for any of us is the one we cannot see being done. Darkness will work slowly and maliciously to dilute our faith. It works by picking one area and making us believe the situation will never change. Almost as if it's beyond God's power. So rather than focusing on God, we focus on future destruction using past sins.

God loves us so much; He weeps in His throne room when we leave only a few of our burdens at the cross. On that note, what area of our lives is simultaneously covered in worry and prayer? First, reflect on the different places we surrender to God while still allowing our flesh. Our faith is slowly diluted. Then, through prayer, let's focus on God and experience a growing confidence in Him in these areas. Just because we cannot understand the bigger picture doesn't mean God is not fighting on our behalf.

Pastor Shannon

New Life Calvert