“Who is the object of your faith?” It sounds like a simple question, and you would love to answer without hesitation; Jesus. But let’s take a second and truly examine ourselves. When you take a few seconds to examine your life, is He? Of course, like every article, when I write this I’m talking to myself just as much as I am talking to anyone else. We all need to hear this and stop assuming that just because we go to church, we don’t cuss, we don’t do anything considered ‘bad’ that Jesus is automatically the center or object of our faith.
There are many other ‘objects’ that could be taking that #1 spot in holding your faith, you might not even realize it. One very common object would be none other than yourself. Faith in yourself is when you are trying to ‘do good’ or be acceptable. When you feel like you have to do good in order for God to reward you, or to feel like you are doing what you are supposed to be doing. Now I’m also not saying that you should not do good deeds, but what I want to bring attention to is why you are doing these good deeds? Are you doing them because God has laid it on your heart, you feel your entire being is just on this earth to do good, and you are striving every day, every decision, to be like Jesus, or are you doing it because you were raised in church and your parents and pastor taught you wrong from right, and all the ‘rules’ to follow to be a ‘good’ Christian? This is important, realizing the origin and the reason for why you are doing the things that you are doing are essential.
If you go out and do amazing things in the name of Jesus but you are only doing it because you ‘think’ it’s the right thing to do, or you are just doing these great things and using Jesus’s name but really seeking gratification and praise from others for yourself, then you’ve totally missed the point and you truly should reevaluate some things. Another very good indicator of if you are in control or God is when you stumble across a bump in the road. What do you do? What do you do when you are so anxious, stressed or life has thrown you so many curve balls in a week you don’t know what to do? If you pray, that’s a good start, but then what? It should go further than that.
Once you pray do you wait for an answer from God or do you being taking matters into your own hands, thinking that you don’t have enough time to wait for God to get back to you. Do you think that you can make the decision like God? When you take matters into your own hands, you are taking them out of God’s, and therefore you are basically saying that you know how to handle the situation on your own. You are putting faith in yourself, and not God.
Another object is money. Money is both good and evil. While many just view money as a thing made by the devil, money can be good if used for the glory of God. It’s just typically not used in such a way because in doing so means you have to have a lot of faith in God and a little to no faith in yourself or money. When the offering plate is passed around, are you hesitant to give the last $20.00 you have in your wallet? Money is very powerful, sometimes it’s more powerful than our faith in God. I feel like society has brainwashed us into being so fearful to be without money, that now money is something that we feel like we can’t part with. We need it to live, but in reality, the only thing you need to live is Jesus.
Of course, there are other objects that could be taking the spotlight away from Jesus, but these are the two that I feel are most prevalent in today’s society. When you are able to truly examine yourself and identify what or who the object of your faith is, and then remove what is currently there (if God is not) and place God where He belongs. Then you are going to be able to be living a life with a soul purpose.
