Rev. George Ellis
Pastor’s Corner
Part I
Let me be blunt today when I say, “OUR FAITH IS ALL WE HAVE.”
The devil knows that and we know it; our faith is in an all-powerful God; one who is omnipotent (all powerful); omniscient (all knowing); and omnipresent (everywhere at the same time); lose our faith and we lose our HOPE; lose our HOPE and we have nothing; that’s why Satan sets out to destroy our faith because he knows that if he destroys our faith he can destroy us; that’s why we need to hear the word of the Lord at the beginning of the year to prepare us for the rest of the year.
“Don’t lose your faith.”
It might sound strange, community, but some already have. Coming into the new year they were not optimistic at all; and that’s not good; for each day and each coming year I think that we ought to be getting closer to the Lord; and in doing that our faith is strengthened; and I say that this morning because we are going to need our faith; I’m not talking about all this emotional stuff that don’t have no substance; but I’m talking about a faith that can stand the test of time; community praising God is good, I love to praise the Lord; he (God) inhabits the praise of his people, for we are the sheep of his pasture.”
Everything that has breath ought to praise the Lord (Ps. 150);” but when the dust settles, we had better have some substance, some root that grounds itself in the word of God.
Community, don’t lose your faith this morning in 2022; don’t let what you hear cause you to lose your faith; don’t let what you feel … don’t let what you see cause you to lose your faith; don’t let what’s going on around you, don’t let where you are right now as bad as it may be cause you to lose your faith in God; because if we are not careful, we will let what we see, what we hear and what we feel determine what we believe; not good! Because I hope we know that our eyes can play tricks on us; they can see things that are not there; it is through the eye gate that Satan can show us things that can distract us and cause us to focus on the distraction rather than keep our focus on God, and thus our faith will begin to falter.
Community, this is the new year; we need to begin this year by being single minded; focus in on what we need to see; and what is it that we need to see? We need to single mindedly see God who has not gone anywhere; in case we forgot God has not gone anywhere; He is where he’s always been.
Don’t let what you see and what you hear cause you to lose sight of that; don’t let all of these testing sights here and around the country and the long line of cars and people sitting there for hours at a time cause you to lose your faith; don’t let all of these inconsistencies on vaccines confuse you and cause you to lose your faith. Because we will start sinking if we do.
Somebody remembers Elisha the man of God’s servant (2 Kings 6:16,17); remember he got up early and looked, and saw the city surrounded by their enemies with horses and chariots. The servant of the man of God let what he SAW put fear in his heart and he panicked, he lost his faith; being moved by FEAR he cried out to Elisha and said, “Master, what shall we do?” but that’s what FEAR does; it causes you to lose sight of God and your faith in God; no wonder the bible says “There is no fear in love: perfect love cast out fear; because fear has torment; He that fears is not made perfect in love (1 John 4:18).”
Elisha prayed for the Lord to open his servants’ eyes, that he could see. And the Lord opened his eyes and he saw the mountain full of horses and chariots of fire surrounding (protecting) Elisha. God was there all the time; and he’s with us all the time; don’t lose your faith!
Danielle Bernock said this: “Things happen that shake our faith. Situations arise suddenly like a storm. They shake us up, spin us around and overwhelm our mind and emotions. When this happens, we discover what we really believe.” She said, “Our faith isn’t shaken when things are calm. It’s when the pain is overwhelming, and we can’t see straight that’s when what’s inside us comes out. Sometimes we shock ourselves. I’ve had my faith shaken and its scary.” She said. “We can hold onto our faith in the midst of being shaken.”
Well said.
My friends, our faith is only as good as what we have faith in; in this case our faith is in God in 2022; Mrs Bernock was right, “our faith is not shaken when everything is calm; when it is beach weather and it’s 85 degrees outside; when there is not a cloud in the sky; but storms bring out either the best in us or the worst in us; they show what we are really made of; in the midst of the right kind of storm what’s inside of us comes out; we discover what and who we really believe.
Community we don’t know what 2022 hold, but we do know WHO holds 2022. Don’t lose your faith.
The Rev. George Ellis is the pastor for Union Grove Missionary Baptist Church.
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January 14, 2022 at 08:18PM
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