Devotional: “Where the rubber meets the road” is where to draw on faith in God

In your life, where does the “rubber meet the road”?

For most Christians, it’s those times in life where our “theology” (what we believe about God) is challenged by life’s events. We believe God is good, yet tragedy hits our family. We believe God is in control of everything, yet we lose our job. We believe God loves us, but when we beg Him to heal our terminally ill loved one, nothing happens, and they die. I hope you get the point.

We say “WE BELIEVE,” yet when life stinks, we wonder: “Is God really that way?” Our response to these moments are when we find out if we “really” trust God.

Responding in “faith” is what God desires of us at these moments. Trusting Him in spite of our circumstances is what He’s looking for. Hebrews 11:6 emphasizes this point: “And without FAITH it is impossible to please God. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.” The rest of the long chapter consists of biblical accounts of those who demonstrate this point, regardless of the temporary cost.

To help our congregation grasp this point we defined faith as: “On the other side of our current circumstance, we will completely agree with God concerning what He has done and why He did it.”

Rubber-meeting-the-road moments don’t allow us to see these things about God. They actually challenge us to doubt God and all that we say we believe about Him. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Your life story can be like the ones in Hebrews 11.

Pastor Mark Gause

First Baptist Church of Alhambra

This story was originally published July 8, 2016 at 9:40 AM with the headline "Devotional: “Where the rubber meets the road” is where to draw on faith in God."