It’s all about faith……. - 6th March 2008

I talked yesterday about some of the common words that keep cropping up in these programmes, and two that I haven’t yet mentioned are faith and commitment.

Going through the selection process, there is lots of talk about being committed and up for the challenge and ‘I’ll show you’ stuff – the usual testosterone that blokes excel at. And yet, when it comes to delivery, or lack of, I often think back to what people said and how they fail to perform, because there is an easy way out, or they haven’t really tried.

There is probably a whole series around ‘why didn’t you’ and the excuses people provide. And time and again, it comes back to commitment and faith in their ability to see something through – even if it is painful. At times, the participants have no option, but frequently you can see the excuses building and they have little faith in their own abilities – the mind games coming into play because there is an easy way out.

The dictionary describes faith with the following words - trust, belief, confidence, conviction; optimism, hopefulness, hope. I think that sums it up quite nicely and there are words in there that can be included in the definition of commitment.

In the Christian faith, we are called to make a commitment to God and put our faith in Him, and it’s one that at times can be difficult, and often has easy get outs/temptations. The Devil is a cunning fellow, and it ties in with the ‘summit fever’ theme I talked about earlier in the week where we focus on something without understanding the consequences of our actions.

I looked up commitment in the NIV, and it doesn’t feature – but faith does. If you take time to read through the gospels, faith crops up an awful lot, either in the context of Jesus talking about people having little faith, or people being healed through faith.

Matthew 17 v 20 sums it up quite nicely;-
"Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."

So going back to my opening point. These participants need to not just talk the talk but walk the walk – and that’s also true in our walk with God. Lip service doesn’t get us into heaven, but real service does.

Have a great day.