December 2, 2006
Let’s welcome Rä¢HÉl MôK, our international RTF staff member. She lives in Australia, but is from Singapore. Rachel will be blogging once or twice a month on RTF.
Today she gets real about True Faith.
True Faith
by Rä¢HÉl MôK, 17
Faith may become to us like a promise on demand and we operate it through formulae, mechanisms and techniques. The truth is, no matter how great our faith may be, God is the source of our answered prayer and cannot be manipulated in any way.
People often misunderstand what faith is. Recently, I just attended a church seminar on “True Faith”. A particular lesson taught about a number of different misunderstandings that people have about faith. Having true faith does not imply that we should not or are not supposed to do anything at all. So here I am going to share some common misunderstandings about faith, and my major struggle I go through.
The fir
st common misunderstanding is that “faith works like magic to enable us to receive whatever we desire”, that is not true. Faith is not for getting the things that we want. We should not get confused with faith and God’s power to change things. Faith is to trust God even when we do not exactly understand what God’s plan actually is.
Secondly, people believe that “unanswered prayer is a sign of lack of faith”, which is false again. For example, I am currently praying for a scholarship for my university studies, however if God decides not to give me the scholarship, it doesn’t mean that my faith is weak. Although it is true that we must let God do His part, we must do our part as well. In this case, it would mean I have to study hard for my exams. Faith should be centered on God’s will for our lives. Our faith may increase the possibility of God fulfilling our prayer request, but if God doesn’t answer, it doesn’t mean we are lack of faith.
Finally, some also think that “lack of prosperity is a sign of lack of faith”, however prosperity has nothing to do with faith but it has something to do with what God has planned for our lives. Material wealth is not equivalent to spiritual wealth. We should be contented with what God has blessed us with. As stated in the bible - For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. So we shouldn’t be so focused on material wealth.
BIO: Rachel is 17, originally from Singapore, but studying high school in Australia and going on to study the bachelor of social work in University of Queensland next year. Her interests range from music, photography and writing, basically ways that she can express herself in art forms. Most of all, she has a great passion for people and hopes to be able to touch lives of many in all that she does. Check out her
blog, JUST LIKE HEAVEN.
T. Suzanne Eller says:
Awesome, Rachel. True faith is trusting God daily. Doing that can take you places you never expected. He may take you to another university, another place, all because that is the next step in HIS PLAN for you–how cool is that? That’s destiny.
Suzie Eller, RTF
Rachel says:
Amen! So I have to continue to trust God in His perfect plan:) And I encourage others to do the same, coz His plans are to prosper us and not to harm us as stated in Jer 29:11
Jun says:
I like this too! Very nice to see writer like these!
Jade W. says:
Hi Rachel!
Awesome thoughts!
Jade
rachel says:
thanks guys its really an encouragement:) Appreciate it loads!