Faithful Friday - "Exercising Faith"

For the past couple of weeks, I've been reading the book, God's Smuggler, aloud to Joy.  It has made me realize just how weak my faith really is.  This guy (the author - known as Brother Andrew) worked behind the Iron Curtain smuggling Bibles into those communist countries during the height of the Cold War.  I admire him so much and praise God for men like "Brother Andrew".

It is amazing to me how strong his faith was (and still is) and how he exercised it to the greatest extent, fully expecting God to come through for him, which of course, God always did.....from getting him through security checks into countries where Bibles were in clear sight in his suitcase or vehicle - yet he was allowed through.  Many times Andrew would pray, "Lord you know those Bibles are in clear view in my suitcase or in my little Volkswagen.....would you please let them be hidden from their eyes", and there are amazing stories of how he made it through time after time.

Then there were the times when he needed an exact amount of money for his ministry, for tuition, to print Bibles, etc.., and it was so exciting to see how God provided exactly what he needed, sometimes at the very last possible moment, when most folks (including me) would be ready to say that it just wasn't going to happen this time.  But he also tells of the times when God urged him to do something that he really didn't want to do, like giving away money to a homeless person who would "probably just blow it in a tavern", because he knew he needed that money for his mission field.  Yet he did what God said, and God turned around and immediately blessed him with what he needed when he needed it.

And then there was the time Andy prayed for a wife - a helpmeet to him - one that would love him and understand and put up with his life as a missionary....... and God gave him his precious wife, Corrie, who has been by his side all these years as they live out their ministry to God.

I can't even scratch the surface of the many times Andrew exercised his faith, fully putting his trust in God in the smallest and largest of circumstances.  This book has brought tears to my eyes many times as I read how God provided every.single.time.  And it was also fun to see that Andy was like me in a way - always trying to guess how God would provide - and God with his sense of humor, never did it the way he would guess, but always His way - a way Andrew called The Royal Way (the way only a King would do - never stooping to lowly ways).  :)

I've enjoyed sharing these stories, or experiences as I prefer to call them, from the book with Jason on our walks in the evenings as we talk about our desire to live out that kind of faith - to exercise it to its fullest extent.  It seems so hard, yet I know that what God did for Andrew, He can and will do for me.  After all He's the same yesterday, today, and forever!

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

 

Hebrews 13:8

And God will do the same for you too!  Wouldn't it be great to exercise our faith to the fullest every day and just see what God can do? 

Do YOU have a special testimony or story of a time that you fully trusted and exercised your faith and God came through for you?  It is encouraging to share these stories with each other!

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Thanks so much for joining me today for Faithful Friday.  For more Faithful Friday entries, click on Joy's button above, and better yet, link up your post! 

Have a great weekend!  :)

 Blessings,

♥ Tammy ♥