See Saw of Faith

When I was a little girl, my favorite activity on the playground was the see saw. My best friend Julie Pruit and I would run as fast as we could to the wooden plank each taking our choice of an end. Then, for the next 20 minutes or so we would battle for power and position. She's go up and I'd go down, then she'd go down and I'd go up. Sometimes we would try to see how long we could balance each other out in mid air. It was a game, a contest of sorts, and we loved it.

Now, that memory has been far from my mind for many years, until yesterday. In the middle of church during praise and worship that memory came flooding back. Praise and Worship and the See Saw? Don't get the connection? Well, maybe an explanation will help.

As we were deep into the joy of worship, our worship leader led us in the song, "We Exalt Thee". At some point while still in an attitude of worship, our Pastor invited us to take a moment to think about the needs of our heart. Those areas that walked into church with us and sat down on our minds and hearts hindering us from touching the throne room of heaven with our praise. He encouraged us to place the image of our needs in our hands and exalt it to God (lift it up). All over the building men and women, boys and girls began lifting their hands, their praise and their burdens to the Lord. I too, had my hands in the air and as I continued to praise God in spite of my need I could almost feel my faith begin to rise and the heaviness begin to fall away; just like a see saw.

Later with that thought to ponder I saw a literal picture of what our faith must look like to God. There is He is big enough to handle whatever our needs are and yet, sometimes we make out to be so small and grounded while our problems are exalted in our minds and hearts to be huge unclimbable mountains. Yet, the truth remains that when we let our faith rise, the problem becomes smaller and grounded and God is lifted up (exalted) to His rightful place.

Almost as if to prove His point, later in the day, God showed off for me. You see, on the way home from church, our tire had a blow out. It was bad but thankfully we were going slow enough that no one was in danger. We pulled off the side of the  road and my husband instructed me to call AAA. As I was reaching into my purse for my cell phone I remembered that I had left it on my desk that morning thinking it wasn't necessary to bring to church. Given that the AAA membership in in my name I was the one who needed to walk to a phone and make the call. As I got ready to open the door to walk to the library to use the phone two men pulled up and offered to let us use their phone. While waiting for the AAA man to come, a family pulled up and offered us something to drink. A while later, the same family offered to open their home for any restroom needs we might have. If that weren't enough, when we finally made it home with our donut tire a wonderful friend offered to pay for a new tire.

Now, how do I know this was a direct result to my exalted faith? Because what I lifted to the Lord in prayer an worship only hours earlier was a need to know that He (God) was still able to meet every need. I needed a reminder and God was faithful to respond.

So, today if your faith wavers, let the name of the Lord be exalted and watch as your faith rises! It may not come in the way you think it might (i.e blown tire) but it will come. His Word promises us.

Until next time....blessings,