Who believes in us, trusts us and empowers us.
CREEDS
It could be said that a creed is a statement of what we believe. In all the major creeds of the church we confess what we believe about God. In this creed, we also wanted to affirm that God believes in us. By affirming that God believes in us, we are in fact saying that God’s original plan or dream for the world is to work though people. It is not that we don’t believe that God works supernaturally apart from humans. I have seen this several times. Its just not the part of God working in the world we desire to lift up here.
PRAYER
While I fully believe that God answers prayer, I don’t like waiting. I can’t help but wonder when God doesn’t seem to be answering prayer, that it is because the one praying is not enough. I remember praying for my dad to be healed of cancer and thinking that maybe I should do something drastic like fasting or giving away all my possessions. There seems to be no shortage of preachers who will tell you some formula to use to make God respond. To my knowledge, these only work until they don’t. Something doesn’t feel right about putting a line in the creed that says, “we believe that God will do what God will do.” So instead we affirm that one of the ways God works is that God believes in us to do some of the work.
GOD EVEN USES US
Jesus must have believed in his disciples that they could carry his message to the world after he departed. He kept teaching them and giving them responsibilities along the way. He knew that the real work of changing the world would happen after he was gone. When he chose his disciples he seemingly picked, not the best and brightest of the religious lights in life’s marquee, but those who would follow. So it is with us. God chooses to use average people and uses their uniqueness to show God’s love for all people. Not only does God believe in us but God believes we can carry Gods love to a hurting world.
When I compare my beliefs now, so well represented by this Creed, to my beliefs about Christianity and the organized church years ago; I see a maturity in my faith and what I expect from God and he/she expects from me. Your comments in this post reminded me of how far my journey has come. I pray I continue maturing as a faith filled person.
If God loves us, trusts us and empowers us, lives in us and through us, and answers prayer, why does God not give us the intelligence, means and abilities to succeed in achieving our dreams in our lives? Doesn’t God want is to be happy and achieve our dreams in life? If so, why are we not given the gifts and means to achieve our dreams, especially when it includes serving God and the church? Does God have dreams for us and doesn’t God want us to achieve our dreams?? Why does it seems like our dreams are always just out of reach?
Good question, God uses our abilities and gifts but doesn’t give everyone the same gifts. You have gifts that I don’t have and vice versa. Success in anything is not just being gifted but also hard work. I read books 16 hours a day at Seminary and continue to Study often an hour a day by reading books. When I began I never believed I could or would do that. Use the gifts you have my friend and keep working on them.
If God loves us, trusts us and empowers us, lives in us and through us, and answers prayer, why does God not give us the intelligence, means and abilities to succeed in achieving our dreams in our lives? Doesn’t God want is to be happy and achieve our dreams in life? If so, why are we not given the gifts and means to achieve our dreams, especially when it includes serving God and the church? Does God have dreams for us and doesn’t God want us to achieve our dreams?? Why does it seems like our dreams are always just out of reach?