Tables! Most homes have one, and often need a new one. If we are the fortunate people to provide you with a new table, we want you to have the style you like - but more importantly, we want it to be solid, steady, and sturdy. A table that shakes or wobbles, or comes apart, isn't the type we want you to have. A table like that isn't going to last for many years to come!
In the hymn "Higher Ground", the writer asks God, "Lift me up, and let me stand, by FAITH, on heaven's tableland." My Father has been challenging my faith recently, because the kind of faith that will last for years to come needs to be steady, solid, and sturdy. The difficulty with faith is that we are human, and very in tune with our five senses: touch, taste, smell, hearing, and sight. Faith doesn't use any of them! In fact, my Bible tells me that "faith is the evidence of things not seen." (Hebrews11:1) Faith is not touchable, nor can it be heard. Not only that, but faith must be exercised in someone I can not taste, touch, smell, hear, or see!
So, here's the problem. When I look at my faith, I see a wobbly, shaky "tableland." The problem lies in these words, "my faith." My perspective is at fault! True "tableland" faith can only be solid in Jesus Christ. He is steady and sturdy! Jesus is also the judge of how "good" my faith really is, not me - or someone else. He said in Matthew 17:20, "If you have faith like a grain of mustard seed...nothing will be impossible for you."(ESV) A grain of mustard seed is very small, not much to look at, and certainly not steady or solid! That is Christ's measurement of a "great" faith!
My only part in the matter of faith is making sure who my faith is in. If my faith is in myself, I'm destined to fall apart! If my faith is in my faith, shaking and wobbling is bound to happen!
When my faith is settled in Jesus Christ - not me - then it is solid! As the hymn writer wrote, "My faith has found a resting place...I trust the Ever-living One!" Jesus Christ has all we need, and is all we need to be, and will provide all we will ever need. Faith in Christ never falls apart, nor does it shake or wobble, because He is steady, sturdy, and solid!
- Katherine