You want what? Are you sure?

Praying for Unimaginable Faith is bold. Some might even call it crazy. You see once we have cleaned out the closets in our life, and the upfront and obvious sins that were controlling our lives have been completely turned over to God, then is when I have come to find that the even larger work of transformation begins. For me it was easy to come to God when I was broken and a mess; when I had allowed obvious sin to hold the throne in my life. It was a clear path to the cross for me when I had discovered my closest friend had taken his own life in the room he rented from us in our house. But once faith has been found, and a transformation has occurred in your life; once the life your now living looks nothing like the life you once were, then you begin to pray an even more dangerous prayer. “Lord, show me the areas in my life that I don’t exhibit you. Lord convict me. Make clear the behaviors that are not Christ like. The ones I don’t even realize are areas of sin or weakness in my life.” Once you reach a point where these prayers begin, listening and acting on the answers he gives us truly allows for Unimaginable Faith to take root.

These areas can be different for everyone. I remember when I started to feel convicted about speeding. I wasn’t just a 5 over type of guy. If the speed limit was 70, I’d often find myself cruising along at 85. I’d find myself zipping around town, taking whatever short cuts I could, most of the time being a little too aggressive. I never viewed it as much of a problem, as I hadn’t had a moving violation in 10+ years, and have never been in a serious accident. But just like with other sin in our lives, the enemy uses justification to make us believe there is really nothing wrong with these simple testing of the boundaries. Oh what a slippery slope testing boundaries can become.

Another area I have recently been convicted on in a big way is in the area of personal responsibility and maybe even more specific, one of my wife’s love languages, acts of service. We recently spent 15 days in North Carolina on Lake Norman. We had just been out there a short time before to spend some final days with my wife’s grandfather. He had gotten progressively worse and we had made the decision to head back out and stay until he passed and help in whatever way we could in the time immediately after. As we sat on the plane in Kansas City waiting to take off to head down we got the news that he had passed. This was truly an answer to prayer though, he passed peacefully next to his wife in his hospital bed at their home he had built 30 years prior. We had been praying that the Lord would bring him home quickly.

While we were there as a guest in her grandmother's house it was easy to be respectful in ways I hadn’t been at home. Washing off my dish, placing it in the dishwasher, taking others plates, and trying to serve others whenever I could. I was constantly looking for ways to help those around us and try to be there for her grandmother in any way I could. At times I probably looked like a respectful and caring individual, and this would be true. But recently I have been convicted by the way in which I leave my dishes on the counter after eating at home. One of Tanja’s love languages is Acts of Service so she does the dishes regularly, she never complains. She had never asked me not to leave dishes on the counter like I did, or to put them in the dishwasher. So this wasn’t an area of contention for us. Yet it convicted me in a very real way. If I was able, and so willing to clean my plate and put it in the dishwasher there in North Carolina to the point of being willing to do it for others as well, then why am I not automatically doing this in my own home to help out the person I love more than any other human on this earth? The thought was like a bat to the back of the knees. In a moment I realized what God was trying to tell me and I was humbled. Why have I not being showing my love for my wife through upholding something I should be personally responsible for anyway. I mean we aren’t even talking about the act of service that cleaning her plate and doing the same would be, we are talking about my own plate. Talk about a gut check moment.

This might be something big to some and extremely small to others. But when we pray for God to implant in us an Unimaginable Faith, these are the types of things that he begins to work on in our lives. He makes clear the ways in which we are not providing an example of who Christ is. Whether it be driving 10 over the speed limit on the interstate, or not cleaning off my plate and putting it in the dishwasher. Both of these things are two areas of my life where I am falling short in living life as an example of Christ. We are never going to be perfect, but if we have decided to continue down the path of serving the one true God then our constant aim should be to become as much like Christ as we can, and that means cleaning up every cobweb in every room of the house that is our life.

These are two areas of recent conviction, and areas that I am still working on currently. These are behaviors that are almost second nature. But they are now areas I pray about and seek the Lord in every day. We can not reap the rewards of Unimaginable Faith without first putting in the work. I look forward to the areas of my life that the Lord points out to me now. Even though most provide a real and painful gut check, working through them draws me closer to him and allows me to be a brighter light to those around me; my family, my church, and my community.

"And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect." (Romans 12:1-2 NLT)

"So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image." (2 Corinthians 3:18)