When something annoying, aggravating, confounding, distressing or upsetting occurs in our lives, we can choose to remain unhappy in the situation. Or, as former Daily Word Editor Martha Smock advises, we can choose to meet it with faith.
Martha encourages us to “overcome unhappiness” by looking “past what seems to be.” This means that we choose to see beyond the outer appearance of the person, place, situation, or thing which we’ve allowed to annoy, aggravate, confound, distress, or upset us. This is similar to Jesus saying, “Look beneath the surface so you can judge correctly” (John 7:24 NLT).
As we go beneath the surface, as we turn to God’s Presence within us, we remember, as Martha says: “Nothing can separate you from God’s love, nothing can cast you down, nothing is greater than God’s power in you, with you, all about you.” By choosing to meet life with faith, “cares slip away, and joy, the joy of Spirit rises up in you.”
“The often surprising result of holding to faith is the great welling up of faith you feel within you,” Martha says. “Where before you thought you had faith, when you really take your stand and declare, ‘I have faith in God as the one presence and the one power, the one life, the one healer,’ there is an answering response within you. It is as though God says within you: ‘I am here. I am your life. I am your being. I am your all.’ You feel a new faith, stronger, more certain than any you have known before. And with this faith comes healing” in every aspect of our lives.
When we meet life with faith, we remember the truth which Jesus declares: “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well” (Luke 17:19 ESV).
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