Faith is a curious thing. As one church billboard recently read, "Faith is taking God at His word." That's the trouble for me - taking God on His word... believing that what God says is true.

Sure, some promises are easy to believe in (or at least to want to believe in). I like to hear that God says He will not leave me or forsake me. I like to hear that God says He hears me when I pray and that He will answer me when I call. Some promises are more problematic. No one wants to hear that salvation depends on dying. In John 16:33 Jesus promises, "In this world you will have trouble." Its hard to believe in (or even want to believe in) a promise that seems so negative.

I have prayed for God to heal people who were dying... and they still died. I've prayed for someone not to lose his job... and he still got fired. I've prayed give me important things, things my family and I need... and we never got it. I've prayed for God to free from temptation and sin... and yet I still fall. There is what God says. There is what I understand. And then there is what actually happens. All too often these three things are far different from each other.

It makes it hard to believe in God when things don't work out the way I want or expect them to work out.

The second half of John 16:33 says, "In this world you will have trouble, but take heart! I have overcome the world." God's ultimate promise is that in the end He wins. Things may happen that are out of my control, but nothing is out of His control. He literally has the whole world in His hands. Sure, some of my prayers seem unanswered or even blatantly denied. Sure I have failure in my life. Sure I don't have everything I want or need. But life keeps going. The world keeps spinning. It gives me fits, but God seems to be okay with it... so doesn't that make everything okay?

One promise God has never made: Faith is easy. It's just the opposite. Faith is difficult. Faith is uncomfortable. Faith is a struggle. I don't know why I expect it to be anything different. It is hard to come to grips with the fact that God intends for us to struggle. I guess in the end it makes us stronger. Faith is just plain hard sometimes, yet I still keep believing.

Like I said, Faith is a curious thing.