FAITH: It's all around

Circumstances make a difference. The gift of faith in Jesus is scattered all around but that doesn't mean everyone receives it. Some people never notice it; it's a language they haven't learned. Some people have the beginnings of faith but loose it easily, they want a god made after their own imagination and when that doesn't happen they give up believing. Then there are the people (lots of them) who receive faith eagerly and are proud to have faith and even think of trying to develop it, but life is too complicated, too demanding, too crowded; faith gets pushed away; it is true that they value faith and wish they could attend to their faith needs but before then they have to work and play and earn and spend. There is another group, the people who believe. For them the opportunity to believe is something to be grasped eagerly. They start and continue to believe, finding answers to their questions as they continue to trust God. The harder their circumstances the more they nurture their faith with times of fasting and praying and meeting together to understand the scripture.

Faith is a gift from God, he makes it available to all people. Who receives faith depends partly on a person's attitude to faith. Whether they keep faith partly depends on how carefully they nurture their faith.


Matthew 13:18 (NRSV)
18“Hear then the parable of the sower. 19When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path. 20As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away. 22As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing. 23But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”