Faith and Shingles

The word “faith” occurs over 230 times in the Bible, most of them in the New Testametn. Therer are some very famous verses that mention the word faith such as Ephesians 2:8-9 and the faith chapter in the book of Hebrews. I had an example of faith yesterday when I had to go to the eye doctor again due to my shingles. I have had a problem with the shingles causing double vision. I didn't know the cause until I got to the doctor's office. I was thinking about getting an eye patch for the right eye and got to checking the internet about double vision and possible causes. Almost all of the references mention goint to your eye doctor immediately. I thought, “well, I could drive with one ey closed but decided to give my daughter a ring and she came and assisted us in getting to the eye doctor. The trip was like an amusement park ride. I was seeing two roads converging at a point with trash cans, orange barrels and cars coming straight at me. I had to settle down and sometimes close my eyes but through it all, I had to have faith that our daughter was driving in the correct way. My eyes were worse than I thought and found out that the shingles virus, which affects nerve endings, had affected the optic nerve thus causing my problems Hebrews 11:1 says,” Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” 

        We have many opportunities to express faith in little things around the house every day. We have faith that the chairs are going to hold us and have faith that the equipment in the kitchen are all going to work right and then getting into a car, we have faith that the car is going to start and then have faith while driving that the cars coming toward you will all be in their lane when they pass you. I remember a little song from Child Evangelism Fellowship which went, “Faith is just believeing, what God said is true.” This is why Ephesians 2:8-9 is so important which begins with “For by grace are ye save through faith...” The person hearing the message of the gospel need to believe that what God said is true. Hebrews 11 begins with the simple explantion of faith, “the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen.” The trip in the car yesterday was an experience of faith for me; faith that everyone was obeying the rules of driving and that my eyes were not giving me the true picture but a very distorted one. How is your faith today? Do you believe that what God said is true or are you trying to explain the things of God in your own way? Praise God today that everything, and I mean everything, is in His control even the things that are not seen.