God Dwells In Faith, the devil deals in doubt

It happens every time.  Right after something amazing and uplifting in my life, I tend to crash.  Does it ever happen to you?  You accomplish or experience something great that you have been waiting a long time for and then when it’s over you wonder what do you have to look forward to?  For a person who struggles with an emotional illness, this “cycling” is heightened. 

This weekend I was exchanging emails with one of my lifelong friends.  As a matter of fact she is probably known me longer than just about anyone and I would say probably knows me better.  Our relationship is one where she could finish my sentences and knows most of my secrets before I even think about telling her.  I confided in her that since my return from Mexico I was feeling down and out and not certain about some decisions I had made and basically just feeling like an underachiever.  She has seen this behavior from me numerous times and shared with me her own personal doubts.  She commented that she was continually doubting love, her appearance, her performance as a mother, wife, so on and so forth.  After dwelling on these things, I had a particularly rough Monday and then just when I needed Him, God’s shoulder appeared.

Just about every preacher I have ever known has told me that we all make the mistake of putting too much faith in man.  That’s probably an understatement.  It’s very common…we all definitely do that on a daily basis.  However, I got to thinking, is it faith in man…or is it doubt.  Does doubt in what we as men and women can accomplish outweigh our faith in what God can accomplish?  For me, that’s where I have been lacking lately.  I have faith in God and I express it on a daily basis and I share it with my colleagues, friends and loved ones, but while my faith may be apparent, my doubt in myself and others is creeping up to an all time high.  I have to break through this cloud in my head and let it really sink in that doubt contradicts faith.  You can’t believe that God will deliver you from a negative circumstance or turn your failures into successes, unless you realize that he uses man to do this.  I have spent so much time making sure I don’t trust anyone else or myself, that I have allowed doubt to succeed. 

Basically we have to realize that God is not going to hand us happiness in the form of cold hard cash, or a beach house in Key West, or a six foot blonde from Sweden. Desires we take to Him in prayer come about by the efforts we put forth in accomplishing these goals.  The people that we work with, play with, serve with, worship with, etc., are tools in this process also.  Therefore having faith in God means faith in His plan and no doubts must exist.  Easier said than done, right?  The only way to defeat the devil’s power over our lives is to utilize all the resources we have available to us to accomplish our goals and God’s plan.   The Father dwells in faith, the devil deals in doubt.  Stand with me, pray with me, the scripture says it all.  Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.”