Greater and Greater Things

I am, for the umpteenth time, reading a little book called "Faith." It is such an inspiring writing, filled with scriptures and stories, and written so passionately, that I'm of the opinion that every so-called believer could benefit by reading it at least a couple of times a year. (I say "so-called" because it's actually not easy to find "believers" who really believe God about much of anything.) At one point, the author makes a comment about using your faith for "greater and greater things."

What it amounts to is that faith never goes into a retreat or defense mode. Like Della Street's running steps, in the old Perry Mason novels, faith always has good "forward action." If it isn't progressive in some way, it isn't faith. I may be sitting, waiting for the Lord to move, but if I'm being proactive in my sitting and waiting, I'm still making progress.

When I read that comment, I couldn't help but think of my house. When the Lord caused my mortgage to be forgiven, my first reaction was "defense mode." Ah, now that I am not in debt, I can sit back a little, and not have to worry about my finances, and I won't ever get into debt again. In other words, since the Lord has done this great thing for me, I'll make sure I don't have to ask Him to do anything more.

But that is not how faith works. When you've seen the Lord answer your prayer in an area, faith causes you to get bolder, to walk a little closer to the edge of the impossible, to "push the envelope" even more. Let's face it: I could afford the mortgage I was paying. If the Lord didn't want to do anything greater for me, why on earth would He have bothered to do even what He did? But once He had done that, I couldn't be satisfied unless I was pressing on to the next thing.

So I got a loan for building the addition-a good, old fashioned, home equity line of credit. The Lord told me right off the bat that it was merely training wheels. Its purpose was to get me moving without the anxiety of falling over. He let me know that He wasn't limiting me to a budget; He was giving me carte blanche with this addition. Not surprisingly, I designed an addition that I wanted. Like, what I really wanted. The big bathroom I really wanted, the radiant floor heating I really wanted, and the windows I really wanted. Then I noticed I'd committed a lot of that loan, and hadn't even talked to anyone about insulation or drywall or flooring.

And I got nervous.

And then I remembered the Lord had never said the loan would cover all the work I was having done on the house. He said it was training wheels-something to get me started.

Faith calls me to trust God for greater and greater things.

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