Exercise Your Faith

“Timothy, my son, I give you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight, holding on to faith and a good conscience. Some have rejected these and so have shipwrecked their faith.” 1 Timothy 1:18-19

Lauren Frances Winner is an American historian, scholar of religion, and Episcopal priest.

She is Associate Professor of Christian Spirituality at Duke Divinity School. Lauren writes and lectures on Christian practice, the history of Christianity in America, and Jewish–Christian relations.

She tells a story about her friend Julian. When she was 12 and going to be confirmed, she had a crisis. She told her father, the pastor, that she wasn’t sure she could tell the church that she believed everything she was supposed to or that she could believe it forever.

“What you promise when you are confirmed,” said Julian’s father, “is not that you will believe this forever. What you promise when you are confirmed is that that is the story you will wrestle with forever.”

As you look to Jesus and grow in faith, thank the Lord that He is a rewarder of all those who place their faith in Him.

“Faith is taking God at His word. Faith is not belief without evidence. It is belief on the very best of evidence – The Word of Him “that cannot lie.”” – R.A. Torrey

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” – 2 Timothy 4:7