Opportunities for Faith

"Faith is deliberate confidence in the character of God whose ways you may not understand at the time.” Oswald Chambers

There is this unseen atmospheric change that happens in the Reign Ministries office when the calendar is flipped from April to May. Everyone ratchets it up to make sure that everything gets done in time for the Royal Servants mission trips. The pace is a little faster and the days a little longer. Even the sound of the laughter is an indicator of the stress in the air as we seek to not be overcome by the pressure to meet every deadline.

One of things that has to be done in May is the purchasing of the international airline tickets. It is one of the most anticipated and stressful weeks of the year for the Royal Servants department. And it is decision time for all those who have signed up to travel with us.

For the handful of participants on each team who haven’t yet raised enough funds to cover the cost of the ticket, it is faith testing time. You see, Reign Ministries can’t purchase tickets for those who don’t have enough funds. So families have to decide, do they risk putting sometimes large amounts of money on hold on their credit cards, having faith that God will bring in the support to cover it all? Or do they let the ticket go and hope to raise enough money to go next year?

The reason this week is particularly difficult for me is that I’m often the one talking the participants or their parents through this decision. Sitting on the other end of the phone I feel the weight of their struggle to maintain the faith they had when they started the process.

How many times have I been in their position? I follow the Lord into the unknown, and when I hit a roadblock I begin to question everything I thought I knew. Was it really the Lord that I was following, or my own determination? Did God change His mind? Did I hear Him wrong? A few times the roadblock I faced was in fact because I wanted God to go with me down the path of my choosing. But more often than not, the roadblock is nothing more than God allowing me the opportunity to have faith in Him and be obedient beyond what I can see or understand.Oh, and for what it’s worth, I’ve not had to charge a credit card yet. God’s come through for those participants every time!