Ever been disappointed with God?

By Pastor John Eiselt

I was recently reading a book, “The Good and Beautiful God”, by James Bryan Smith, and in the opening pages he recalled a time when “mood rings” were a fad. They were said to be able to tell what mood a person was in based on the color of the ring at the time. 

He goes on to reflect on what it would be like to if we had “Love of God” rings, which would detect and display the level of our love for God at any given moment. 

It caused me to reflect on my own season of faith in my journey with God, and on the very nature of the expectations we have of God and his presence in our lives. 

Certain seasons bring us joy, peace, and intimacy with God more easily than others. Many seasons in our lives bring struggle, doubt, and even disappointment in God. 

Ever been disappointed in God? You’re not alone. 

Join us this Palm Sunday Weekend at Five Oaks as we look at Jesus’ Triumphal Entry through the perspective of his followers. Jesus was not who they wanted him or expected him to be. Their disappointment and reaction is the beginning of his journey to Easter.

Need stronger faith? What if God wants you to work for it?

I don’t like working out. There is always something else I could be doing or would rather be doing. So I’ve honed my workout down to the minimal amount of time and work I need to do to accomplish my goals.

What if go to God for better lenses for our faith glasses, but he prescribes a workout to strengthen our faith muscles? 

My goals are pretty simple. All I want is to maintain a basic amount of strength and agility as my body gets older. I’m not looking to get stronger, run long distances, lose weight, or grow muscle mass through my workouts. I just want to make sure I can hike long distances, fish in streams for hours, climb stairs two at a time, and feel good physically. Just everyday stuff. 

And I know I can impact that, to some degree, through exercise. I can work out. And even though I have simple goals, my workouts have to make me stronger because my aging body is getting weaker. To maintain I have to gain. (Sounds like a slogan for a gym membership.)

But there are some aspects of aging that I can’t, through exercise, fix or make stronger. 

A few days ago I was having a bad eye day. Everything was a little more blurry and my eyes were tired from reading even though the day was still young. And this had been going on for about three or four days. I couldn’t figure out why.

Usually, when I have a bad eye day, it has to do with not changing my contacts, but I had changed my contact in my left eye, the one I use for reading. Strangely enough, when I changed the contact in my right eye, the one I use for distance, it took care of the problem. 

But while I was having one of those bad eye days, I thought about a commercial I had heard years ago on the radio about a clinic you could go to or a book you could buy (not sure which one) that would teach you how to strengthen your eyesight through exercises for the eyes. 

Now, I don’t know if that works or not, but I recalled it that day, and I thought, it might help or it might have helped a few years ago. But I concluded that the most it could do is improve my bad eyesight a bit. Probably not worth it to me. Remember, I don’t like working out.

So, here’s my question: Is faith something you can strengthen like you strengthen your body or is it something you can’t really strengthen, like you can’t really strengthen your eye sight? 

I think most people would say you can strengthen your faith. And I’m one of them. 

I think that we, too often, wait for more faith to just hit us, to appear out of thin air. Or we ask God to give us more fait or stronger faith. 

We go to God for better lenses for our faith glasses. 

But what if God, instead, wants us to work out our faith muscles? 

Do you need greater faith for some of the challenges you face daily or problems that are looming in your life? 

What if I told you that the Bible actually offers a workout for faith? 

Would you use the workout? 

We’re talking about how to work out our faith muscles this weekend as we look at the early chapters of Joshua and see everything that God tells the Israelites to do to strengthen their faith. They are going to need it to enter and to conquer the promised land. 

Maybe you have a friend who loves to work out. Invite them to come to church this weekend to learn how to work out their faith muscles. 

Okay, as I reread what I wrote, it sounds a bit cheesy, but you get the picture.