#Online Bible Study

What Do We Do When Our Faith Is Shaken?

Nathaniel Bassey posted something on twitter a while back about ministers.
He said “you are not a minister if you don’t worship God without the microphone.
You are to minister unto the Lord first and he changes your life before He changes other lives through you”(paraphrased)

 

I am inclined to agree that it’s the same for Christian writers/bloggers.
You can’t have anything to give out to others if you are not connected with God and most of what you write is actually God’s dealings with you first of all.
I can’t count the number of times that I have had to re-read what I’ve posted here.
Remember our faith post from last week?
I have had to re-read it multiple times and oh your comments, thank you for them all!
The fellowship of the brethren shouldn’t be joked with, we can learn and draw strength from each other.

 
Whenever I felt like I was slipping, I just went back to that post, the comments and the Bible passages.
So y’all say that hephzibahfrances.com blesses you? I must say that it blesses me first of all.

 

I’ve had some experiences with holding onto God’s Word like crazy this week.
You’d think that it would be easy when you have gone through such stuff before and surmounted them but there’s always a choice to be made every time the challenges arise again.

 
I had a range of stuff to study on this week but I decided to write on this. It would help me and just might help someone else out there.

 
So how do we deal with stuff that happen to us that shake our faith in God?
What do we do when our faith is shaken?

 

(1) Read the Word!
I don’t know how to emphasize the power and importance of the Word of God.
We may think that the Bible we feed on day by day during our quiet time is nothing but the Word indeed has power to save our souls.

 
James 1:21
“So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls.”

 

The Word is life and the Word is truth.
You may feel like those Christian blogs and Bible passages you read is just a waste of time but it’s not.
When you need the word, so far as it is in you, the Holy Spirit will bring it to your remembrance.

 
I’ve had some conversations with someone who said he believed in the Word of God but at the same time, was bringing up the negative circumstances as his reality.
I got home that day and was frantically searching and digging into the Word the Holy Spirit brought to my mind during the conversation with that person.
I wanted to search out what the Word said, not what the world said and that brings me to our second point…

 

(2) You must hold onto the Word of God.
It not enough to just read and not do what it says, you must hold on it tightly.
Practically cling to the word of God.
The Word is our weapon in warfare and it is an armor that we can’t afford to not put on.

 
Ephesians 6:17
“Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

MockIt_22102014042759

We must fasten ourselves in with the word of God.
I had to read this study we did on truth and fastening ourselves with the truth again.
We must realize that only the Word of God is truth… only the Word of God is our reality.
Whatever the situation posits is all lies.
If it is not in the Word of God, then it is not true.
It may seem like we are foolish and naive for believing in the Word like that but this leads me to our third point…

 

(3) We must know that only the wisdom of God is true wisdom.
I had to talk with someone and he kept talking about statistics and all rubbish that keeps people from thriving.
I told him that those kind of stuff do not hold me back and he kept saying, “I believe in the Word oh, but me must face reality”
Inside me, I was like which stupid reality? God’s Word is my reality.

 
I told him all that but it seemed like I was a girl who was naive and had not gone into the real Word.
It seemed like I was foolish for holding onto God’s Word so tenaciously and swallowing it up but then I remembered this…

 
Proverbs 9:10
“Fear of the lord is the foundation of wisdom.Knowledge of the Holy One results in good judgment.”

 

Proverbs 2:6
“For the lord grants wisdom!From his mouth come knowledge and understanding.”

 
Any wisdom outside of the one that God gives is foolishness.
The wisdom that the God has granted us in His word isn’t the wisdom of the world so there is no problem if the world doesn’t see it.
Those whose eyes are opened by God and who belong to God will understand it.
The only knowledge I want to have is the one that God gives.
The only statistics I want to know about is the statistics of the kingdom I belong to -Heaven.

 
So let me sound foolish and naive now.
If faith makes me sound like a fool, then so be it.
If faith makes me sound like I have no sense, then so be it.
That’s the kind of faith that pleases God to no end.
I will foolishly place my trust in Him and we will all see what comes out of it.

 

(4) Recognize the fact that what comes out of placing our absolute faith in God is that the word always wins.
It’s a sure banker any time and any day.
I got home after that conversation and I searched out this post that Roxandra sent in last year on the power in the Word.
Psalm 138:2 says
“I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.”

 

God’s Word is honored even above who He is.
You say is that possible?

 
But He says in Isaiah 55:11
“So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”

 

So you speak the word into your situation and it won’t go back empty without accomplishing it’s purpose in your life.
#ThereIsPowerInTheWord

 
(5) Also, recognize that you must wait
Whenever your faith is shaken, know that you must wait patiently for God to act.
I have said it before here on this blog that patience isn’t my best suit.
I hate waiting for little things not to talk about big things.
I almost would love to scream sometimes- “Lord, now please, now”
But God has His own plans in the waiting period for us.
What plans could they be?

 

(a) We will only learn what true faith is in the period of waiting.
See the posts we’ve done on faith this year? I don’t think that I would have felt the need to take the time to dig into God’s Word on it if I had gotten my testimony before now.

 

(b) True strength of character is built in the period while we are waiting.
Strength of character isn’t built in a day.
The stability in God won’t come overnight, the character is built in the waiting, in the dreaded waiting period, that’s when God does His work in us and purges us of what shouldn’t be in us.

 

(c) We know God intimately during the waiting period.
Why?
Because we draw close to Him and what to know what He does and His ways.
We would want to know what His thoughts are about the situation we are facing.
We know His character-He is patient and so we should be too.
We would know that He is more interested in what He wroughts in our hearts than the miracles.

 

(d) We learn true worship and praise when we wait on God.
This is also a way to deal with a shaken faith.
Plug in your earphones and worship God.
Now, you aren’t worshiping for what He has done for you, you are worshiping Him for who He is.
You just plug in and praise God.
Why?
Because he is God alone.
There’s no other god like Him.

 
I thank you!
I thank you Lord!
Creator of the universe!
Lover of my soul and holder of my heart!
The God who loved me first and set me apart for him.
You worship Him for who He is even in the wait.
So even when you are stripped bare and have no seeming benefits from God, if you want, you can use the period to learn the lesson on true praise and worship.

 

And a final lesson on how to deal with a shaken faith is to pray.

 
We cannot not pray.
We can’t take lightly the place of prayer in strengthening our faith.
Talk to God, have a sincere and open talk with Him.
I’ve had to turn to God and tell Him “Father, you see how I am holding on to your word.
You see my heart, this is what I am doing.
I trust you and I know that you will come through for me.
You will give me victory and let others know that those who hold onto your Word in faith cannot fail”

 

Pray those sincere prayers to God, prayers that when you are done, you feel light and free.

 

And yes, the last one is “PRAY IN The SPIRIT”
Jude 1:20 says…
” But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost”

 

For me, after the episode of my choosing God’s Word over the word of men, I came home, plugged in. Nathaniel Bassey’s “you have done what no man can do” and worshiped.
Then I started speaking in tongues… I can’t explain what I felt after then, I felt renewed.

 
Now, what happens when we speak in tongues is that the Holy spirit takes over and to others you are saying gibberish, but the spirit is interceeding for you in ways that you can”t understand.
And He hits the right prayers accurately.

 
Romans 8:26-27
“And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will.”

 
Worship, praise God and speak in heavenly languages from your heart and see if you don’t come of the funk feeling faith filled and ready to conquer the world.
And we have already conquered the world through Christ.

 

Romans 8:37
“Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.”

 

We have conquered a shaky faith already.
We just have to walk in it.

 

Prayer : Lord, may none of us fall away in this walk of faith.
Strengthen our weak knees and trembling hearts.
Set us on course for you and hold us up with your own hands.
May your Word continually come alive in our hearts and not the world in Jesus Name we pray, amen.
We love you Lord.
We love you forever.

 

And as always, you know that I don’t joke with hearing from you all on Rhema for today on the blog.
This is important.
What scriptures/word did you get as you read along?
Please share with us in the comment section below.

 

God bless you all bigly.

 
Till our next Bible study,
Subscribe to blog below and share this study with someone struggling with their faith below.
Don’t be shelfish 🙂

 

[jetpack_subscription_form]

 

Love,
Frances.

(Visited 245 times, 1 visits today)

You Might Also Like

6 Comments

  • Reply
    Chinomnso Precious
    February 25, 2015 at 2:38 pm

    ‘My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. (‭James‬ ‭1‬:‭2-4‬ KJV)

    Meditating on the above passage has totally changed my perspective on challenges and the position of our faith.

    Thanks for this post, Frances. I now look forward to Wednesdays *covers face* (and other days too. Lol). It’s just that there’s something about the online study that ignites the hunger to look forward to the next Wednesday’s post.

    More of God’s grace!

    • Reply
      Frances Okoro
      February 26, 2015 at 7:03 am

      Thank you Princess…
      I also had an insight on that verse you shared…
      Especially on the “let patience have its perfect work in you”
      Meaning that we aren’t to hurry it along…wait it out while resting in God’s grace.

      And wednesday’s are your best right?
      Mine too…not being biased towards the rest days but I’ve soooo grown by reason of the Word.
      I pray it never runs dry in Jesus name, amen.

  • Reply
    mateyscott
    February 25, 2015 at 3:31 pm

    FRANCES!!! I think Wednesday is now my favourite day on your blog. Lol! It exposes me to some scriptures that I never really paid attention to. When I saw Roman’s 8: 27 on your blog, I just smiled because MSM’s post today on my blog was centered around that verse.

    1 John 5: 14- 15 “This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, he hears us. AND if we know He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him”. I like to believe that is a great faith booster. It’s like saying, okay you have asked, now go and sleep because you know he definitely heard you and he will answer you if you did not ask amiss. And like you rightly said, He honours his word above His name. So really, you should relax and just praise after you have asked.

    About giving praise, praise and fAith work hand in hand. Praise will deliver that request fast because praise is thanksgiving. You can’t exactly give thanks if you don’t believe it has been done or can be done.

    There is really nothing to add. Darling, you have said it all. GOD BLESS YOU.

    By the way, MSM wrote extensively on Faith on the blog. You can read it just in case it helps http://www.mateyscott.com/what-faith-is-part-3/

  • Reply
    Frances Okoro
    February 26, 2015 at 7:08 am

    Thank you for the link shared Mayowa..and the Bible passage too…
    See why I love Bible studies and learning from you all?
    You’ve now reminded me of a passage I should actually meditate on and let sink into me.

    Thank you!

    And praise indeed makes everything “tanda”

    Believing is seeing..
    So it’s like saying ;
    I have seen it already so I will praise God for it.
    He knows how it will be delivered, that’s not my headache.

  • Reply
    Amaka
    February 23, 2016 at 11:08 pm

    Thank you, Frances.

    • Reply
      Frances Okoro
      February 25, 2016 at 12:58 pm

      You’re welcome Amaka..let me even go and re-dig into this post..

Leave a Reply

CommentLuv badge

%d bloggers like this: