Grief presents us with a choice – to turn away from faith or to jump all in. Before my father was diagnosed with cancer, I would have said that I believed in the gospel and that I knew God was good. But when he got sick and was gone so quickly, I found myself wrestling with some deep questions. How could a good God let this happen? How did the gospel – the good news – line up with this awful news? How could Jesus be the light of the world and still let this darkness into my life?
Have you ever gone through something that makes you question – that presents you with the choice to turn away or to commit?
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Shallow faith won’t get you through the hard questions. You can’t believe in God half-way, not really. You have to commit to being all-in.I knew I had to go deeper, cling to Him truly, and get to know Him more if I was going to trust Him through the process of grieving my Dad.
All-in faith is not self-focused.
I realized that I had a very self-focused faith as I started navigating this journey of loss. Shallow faith asks, “What can God do for me? Why isn’t God taking care of me or doing what I think He should?” All-in faith says, “God, how can I serve you in this? What do you have for me to learn? I trust that you are taking care of me.”
I am learning that it’s okay to tell Him that I’m feeling scared or angry or hurt, but that going deeper requires listening to what He has to say about those feelings. Going deeper means letting Him uncover lies I am believing about Him or the gospel or even myself. Going all-in means being willing to feel pain in the circumstances so that He can use it for my good, to refine me, in order to make my mess into His message.All-in faith is not self-focused – it’s Christ focused. It takes the attention off of me and puts it back on Him. It changes my perspective from “why is this happening to me?” to “what good is He going to bring out of this?”
All-in faith chooses to focus on the eternal light of Jesus in this dark, broken, temporal world.
I remember being in the hospital, sitting next to my Dad’s bed not long before he died. My parent’s pastor was there and what he said had a profound impact on me. When we told him that Dad didn’t have long, he looked at my Dad with tears in his eyes and said “What are you most looking forward to about Heaven?” That eternal perspective – that there was hope, light, joy still to be found – is so powerful. He went on to remind us that God’s perfect plan didn’t involve any of this – the sickness, the pain, the loss, the death. That God’s perfect plan was broken by sin and that’s why Jesus came.
I know that my Dad chose to set His mind on things above and not on the earthly things because He was at peace.
Honestly, I am still wrestling but I see it much more clearly now. Just as the old hymn says, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus / Look full in His wonderful face / And the things of earth will grow strangely dim / In the light of His mercy and grace.”
When I find myself chaotic and weighted down with darkness, it is because I have taken my eyes off of Jesus. There is so much to be distracted by in this broken world. But this world is temporary. It is not our home. I am finding that I must choose to let those things go and instead put my full focus on the light of Jesus, the author and perfecter of my faith in order to carry out the purpose He has for me while I’m here.
Romans 8:18 “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
All-in faith chooses to trust that God is good because of His character, regardless of circumstance.
How can God still be good when this loss is so heavy, this depression is so dark, this circumstance is so painful? This is where shallow faith just really doesn’t cut it anymore. This is where it gets real. If we don’t believe that God is good, regardless of circumstance, then we can’t trust Him when things get messy, difficult, or painful.
I had to ask myself if I really, truly knew who God was and if I believed He was who He said He was. I had to ask myself if I really, truly believed that God was good no matter what, even if the worst thing happened.
I had to decide He was good, even if.
This series, especially the first sermon, from my home church is really powerful.
If you want all-in faith you’re going to have to seek Him out. Get to know Him. Read His words. Then, decide to trust Him. Choose to believe Him. No matter what, even it.
All-in faith clings to the hope of the gospel all the more in the midst of pain.
Shallow faith rejoices in the hope of the gospel only in the good times, while all-in faith clings to that hope in the midst of deep sorrow and pain. Instead of allowing the pain of tragedy and loss to distance you from God, allow it to bring you closer to Him.
“When my heart is overwhelmed, take me to the rock that is higher than I.” Psalm 61:2
Remember that when you run out of your own strength, He is right there waiting to carry you. His power is made perfect in your weakness. (2 Cor. 12:9)
All-in faith is getting to know a loving God and then trusting that He is faithful – even when we can’t see it or understand it.
Faith is being sure of what we hope for. It is being certain of what we do not see. (Hebrews 11:1) The hope that we have through faith is, as Hebrews 6:19 reminds us, an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.
All-in faith means changing our perspective, remembering that there are better things to come.
We can rest in the knowledge that the battle has already been won and we are a people awaiting the return of our Savior and the beginning of a perfect life with Him.
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.
For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.
For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us,who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
Romans 8:18-31
Friend, God sees you. He hurts with you. Psalm 56:8 says He knows the tears you cry and keeps track of your sorrows. And Psalm 147:3 promises that God binds up the brokenhearted, as He is our Comforter!
Run to Him, no matter the circumstance – no matter how many questions you have. Take your doubts to Him instead of letting them drive a wedge between your heart and His. Throw down any bits of shallow faith and jump into and all-in faith in the one Who loves you so much that He died so that He could be with you forever.
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Larisa Zechin says
This was so good, Anna. Loved this part: “I am learning that it’s okay to tell Him that I’m feeling scared or angry or hurt, but that going deeper requires listening to what He has to say about those feelings. Going deeper means letting Him uncover lies I am believing about Him or the gospel or even myself. Going all-in means being willing to feel pain in the circumstances so that He can use it for my good, to refine me, in order to make my mess into His message.All-in faith is not self-focused – it’s Christ focused. It takes the attention off of me and puts it back on Him. It changes my perspective from “why is this happening to me?” to “what good is He going to bring out of this?”
Anna says
Thanks so much for reading. God has been teaching me so, so much about this.