I woke up this morning in my usual routine, hitting the snooze twice (I purposefully set my alarm to go off 20 minutes earlier than necessary each morning) then creaking out of bed. The air is a little cold--it’s just below freezing outside. My body is hurting a bit from a surgery I had, and the cold doesn’t help, but life must go on, so I am rising to head to work.

This morning is especially frustrating, even crossing the line over into depressing, as life has just been hard lately. I call out to the Lord in the shower, and for a moment, for a split second, I can see myself and realize the trap I have allowed myself to fall in. Understanding flickers in my consciousness and I whisper, “The joy of the Lord is my strength” (Nehemiah 8:10) I decide, right then and there--with a hunger in my heart that only God can fill--that the joy of the Lord is going to be my strength today. I lay my burdens on Him again as the hot shower awakens me.

Life is a roller coaster of circumstances, emotions and carnal desires which can be like a violent sea of waves from time to time. The question is, are we living reactionally (my word) or are we living proactively? Is our daily existence simply a constant set of naturally negative responses to the frustrations of living, or is it rather a mode of living which sees the unseen in faith, and lives in a way which spites those hardships?

Just as there would be no need for miracles if there were no incurable health conditions, so there is no need for living by faith (Romans 1:17) if there is no hardship in everyday living. Since true faith is the “substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen,” (Hebrews 11:1) then it is God’s will that there are some real trials in our lives for the purpose of teaching and maturing us into what He would see us to become.

In a misunderstanding of this truth, the daily pursuit for many Christians today is for a higher spiritual plane, a higher emotional experience in “The Spirit,” and a constant “Fuzzy feeling” in Jesus Christ. However noble this pursuit of God may be, it is nonetheless misdirected, and based on a misunderstanding of the will of God for our lives. It is the will of God for the believer to learn, by the constant pursuit of spiritual disciplines, and by the constant practice of denying the flesh, to truly live “by faith!”

Abraham, one of my favorite Bible characters, is the father of the faithful--and for good reason. Abraham was given a covenant. He believed God and his way of living proved it. He left his father’s household with nothing more than a promise from an invisible God. For decades, Abraham waited and believed, and continued to believe in spite of God’s silence in certain seasons. Abraham knew something that we would be wise to understand: true faith is planted when God speaks, but only germinates and becomes a plant when God is silent. Silence is the testing ground of faith.

Today, although our circumstances and world are different than Abraham’s, our calling and covenant is the same. Go, and go in faith to a land that I will show you. I will make your offspring as the sand of the sea. As it is written, “Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him” (Hebrews 10:38).

The real question, then, is this: Am I living life in response to the circumstances, emotions, and carnal desires that plague me on a constant basis or am I living my life in spite of the same? Is my existence a constant roller coaster ride of frustration, or an ever-growing faith in my Lord who has called me into life? The beautiful truth of the matter is that when we truly decide to live by faith, and leave behind our own itineraries, then we will truly find contentment!

The spirit of God is witnessing in every heart of His will for all believers--to live “By faith of the son of God” who loved and gave himself for us. Looking for the day of our death when you and I, having “fought the fight,” (II Timothy 4:7) and having “loved not our lives unto death,” (Revelation 12:11) will be free from this physical body and realm-- and will see His face and “be like him” in a moment, (1 John 3:2) as we see our Savior and Lord face to face for the first time!

© 2007, Sean Hyatt

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Sean Hyatt is a proud father of two boys, and lives with his gracious wife of six years in Denver. He helps oversee a “hired house” of Apostolic believers in his neck of the woods, works full time for Qwest communications, and is currently earning his bachelor’s degree in fine art. When he’s not being a wanna-be webmaster for his Apostolic site, Onlythescriptures.com, he’s usually half-asleep.