Fully Persuaded

The other day a friend of mine told me a story of a 13 story building in China that simply toppled over.  It seems that the contractors and workers failed to accurately follow the plans that were given to them.  There was not enough strength in the base of the building to keep it from toppling over.

As I was reading in Romans today, I was reminded of how our faith is much like those buildings.  We need to be grounded according to the plans and the specs that are called for by God written and communicated to us through the Bible.  We need to know that when the storms of life come that we will not waver, we will not be shaken, and we will not fall in our faith.  We can't take short cuts.  We need to follow the plans.

There's also an element of trust involved.  Often we don't follow the plans because we don't trust the plans, the map, the direction, or the guidance given to us.  We're not persuaded that God's plan is the best course of action for our lives.  We know better; we have obligations; we have commitments and bills to pay; we have .... fill in the blank yourself.

Romans 4:20-21  New International Version 1984 (NIV1984)

²⁰ Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, ²¹ being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.

Until we are persuaded that God can be trusted, our faith will be found lacking and the longer we wait to fortify our faith the sooner our lives will begin to topple.  We often don't have all the "therefores" and "hows" answered when God asks us to trust him.  He simply says trust! That is the essence of faith!

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Be praying for Christ Church this weekend.  We have a partnership exploration meeting with the leaders of 757 Life Church in Virginia Beach, VA.  They will arrive in Erie on Friday and stay through Sunday.  We are seeking a church to come along side of us as a partner to offer encouragement, coaching, mentoring, and accountability as we grow.  I hope that you will make worshiping with us this week a priority, we would love to introduce you to Kreg and Faith Vaughne.

We have a PODCAST where you can catch up on or re-live the messages from our services.  In the right hand column you can click on the word PODCAST and it will take you to our host site.  We trust that this will be a valuable resource for you.