It is common for new believers to begin with a measure of faith and then develop a moderate level of love for God. After this the believer usually begins to encounter challenges that stretch their faith. Then the questions is whether or not the believer will push ahead with deeper faith. It is not so difficult to develop a strong love for God, even if it is not yet mature. But developing deep faith is a huge challenge that many never overcome. In other words, it is easier to develop love than faith.
“We walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7, ESV). This means we must be willing to accept some blindness. We cannot insist on being able to have spiritual sight about everything. For most of us God has already proven himself in various ways. We do not need to wait for something more to learn to walk in dark faith. We can’t keep going back to convince ourselves of God’s truths.
One of the major struggles with prayer is the problem of unwanted thoughts. When we are physically still and in a quiet place our mind takes the opportunity to think about the concerns of the day as well other concerns. Some of these will go away in a few minutes but others will intrude anytime. They can be very annoying and we can end up thinking that we are wasting our time. The good news is that everyone has them and that we don’t need to be discouraged by them.
Church shootings and other security issues continue to seize our attention. Up until recently, church security was mostly about making sure that someone kept track of keys and that the building was locked up. Although most of our churches remain safe places, the impact of a violent event, while extremely rare, is so damaging that it's wise to think about your church's plan in these situations. We must resist the impulse of irrational fear while still acting with wisdom and foresight.
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