Wednesday, 9th March

  Yesterday we talked about hunger and expectation as the keys to accessing the Life of God. But what about the in-between times?  How do we sustain those two things in the waiting room?

  The Bible always has the same answer for questions like this.  The Scriptures unanimously resound with the chorus of one word that is the key to open the doors of the Kingdom and all it offers.... FAITH.  All the riches of the Kingdom are accessed by Faith.

  As I write this I know that many of you are tuning out and this is because for a microwave people, a pleasure drunk people, the word faith is our equivalent of the F word. We hate it.  It annoys us.  It frustrates us.  It is vague and unspecific in its promise.  Phooey!  I know.  I know!  I get it.  I feel the same some of the time.  but I think that the reason we hate faith is because we miss an important element in faith.... that's "revelation."

  The "stuff" of God is not something we can figure out.  We, left to our own minds and insights would dwell in the realm of immediate gratification and survival.  It is the stuff of instinct.  Human culture would look more and more like Darwin & Nietzsche's assumption.  It is only when the "light" of God's perspective invades our self obsessed minds that we are able to see the forest for the trees.  All of a sudden we realise we were built for purpose and with Creative Imagination in His image.  We are His and find ourselves in Him.  We then respond to that understanding or not.  If we do not want this to be true we deny it and resist it.  We have that option and the perspective drains away leaving us to our devices.  But the opportunity is not a product of our "search" but rather His intervention and pursuit of us.  Faith is a response to revelation.

  What does this have to do with Faith & Hunger?  We need to press into a posture that is ready to receive and is willing to be re-shaped by His revelation of Himself as generous, good, compassionate, faithful and ready to respond to our hunger as our "Abba" not a hard task master.  In Matthew 25 Jesus tells the story of the Talents and the three slaves.  The third slave is so afraid of failure and so lacking any confidence that his master is FOR him that he chooses the safe route and does not risk out at all but just buries the talent.  Why?  Because, as he says, He "knew he was a hard man."  But that was wrong!  The fact that the master entrusted these SLAVES with his possessions is proof that he is not hard but generous.  But a false image of the Master led to no expectation.  Just fear.  

  You need a revelation of YOUR MASTER if you are to respond to Him with Faith as well as Hunger.  Hunger alone will not access Kingdom.  It requires the faith to risk out, to believe, to activate His heart of generosity on our behalf.  Where has he ALREADY deposited revelation in your journey with Him about his character?  What is he revealing to you even this week?  Focus in.  Stare into those realities.  Let them wash over you.  Let them shape you and birth faith in you.  Let them birth expectation and sustain that expectation as you cry out in hunger with confidence that Your God is FOR you and more generous than we have ever imagined.