Faith & Happyness

We were watching Your Best Life on UCB this morning and their senior minister Phil Pringle was discussing various parts of the Bible and relationships with God. But what really stood out and hammered home for me was Faith. I posted a video clip earlier in the week from The Bucket List about Faith, hopefully this follows up a little...

People seem to think that Faith is just what they have in the Lord. "I have Faith in God that everything will be OK", I have Faith in God that this, that or the other. However our Faith shouldn't just be focussed directly on God, it should also be about faith in ourselves. God won't fix everything himself, he gives us opportunities to sort out our own issues, our problems.

The classic joke, a line taken from the excellent movie The Pursuit of Happyness - a man is drowning, a boat comes along and offers to save him, he says, "No, it's OK, God will save me." The boat leaves the man still struggling in the water before another boat comes along. They try and save him, he says "No, it's ok, God will save me." The boats leaves. The man drowns. When he gets to heaven he says to God, "God why didn't you save me?". God replies, "I sent you two boats you big dummy!"

Not the greatest or most serious example I know, but it illustrates the point perfectly. God doesn't always send lightning bolts down when we ask him for help, he doesn't always move mountains to aid our path. He puts in place little stepping stones for us to take to get ourselves out of trouble. Having faith in God is also having Faith in yourself to do God's work, listen to him and trust in the path, the opportunities and the offerings that he puts in front of us.