Made for More | A Life of Faith

If you could write your own obituary, what would it say? How do you want to be remembered, what do you want to be known for? It’s worth thinking about, because it’s a way of reflecting on what we believe our purpose is, what we were made for.

In Hebrews 11 we get a roll call of some of the most significant figures in the history of God’s people. The writer gives us snippets of their lives to draw attention to what they all had in common: a life of faith. They were far from perfect, they made all kinds of mistakes. They came from dysfunctional families and many of them had a questionable backstory. They weren’t commended for their accomplishments, their intelligence, their piety, or their success. They were all commended for their faith.

However you define significance, whatever you imagine a successful life to be, according to God’s Word, the measure of a meaningful life is faith. The writer explains in the first verse exactly what faith is. Faith is a confident hope, an assurance, a knowing - that the unseen realities of God are what this life is really all about. We can’t discover our purpose without growing in faith, because we were made for more, for the spiritual realities of God. So what does mature faith look like?

Thankfulness

Your life right now is the sum of everything in your past, good and bad, where you’ve come from, what you’ve been through. Our relationships, our choices - they all shape us. Thankfulness is about recognising the unseen hand of God in our past. Faith looks back and realises that God has always had a plan for our lives, that He has been working in the middle of everything that we’ve gone through. Instead of entertaining bitterness and regret, we learn to see and value the good gifts which we’ve been given even through hardship, disappointment and loss. Don’t let a lack of thankfulness be a limiting factor to your faith. Choose the path of thankfulness. For some it’s a longer journey than others, because it’s not about putting a filter over our personal history and pretending things were great. Thankfulness is simply the choice to start looking for God’s fingerprints, because we know we were never alone, even in the unseen moments.

Contentment

In today’s world it’s not easy to be fully present. There’s a million temptations, a million messages, a million distractions available every moment of the day. And that’s just the internet. We were made for more, and ironically that’s what makes us vulnerable to manipulation. This world we live in is so creative at weaponising that longing against us, reducing us to consumers addicted to the next thrill. We know that nothing this world offers can satisfy. We know the answer isn’t #more. But it’s not easy to live for the unseen when our desires are on overdrive.

Contentment is the key to being fully present. It’s a faith perspective - recognising that wherever I find myself today, God is with me and He is my portion. Contentment is about learning to be ok with uncomfortable experiences, with circumstances I can’t change, with my own limitations. They’re not something to be avoided, they’re the fabric of a life of faith, an invitation to discover the unseen God in my daily life. The more we stop chasing this world and its desires, the more we discover of God’s purpose.

Hope

Hope is all about a heart posture towards the future. Most of the media we consume is dominated by sensationalism and scaremongering, because fear sells. But it’s so easy to end up paralysed by this world’s bleak vision of what’s ahead. Faith is able to look forward with a totally different attitude, because we know that God is in control. We know that the best is yet to come because our confidence is in Him. So we pursue the unseen promises of God, learning to trust His voice and to move forward. We embrace life as an adventure because God has a plan and He’s not finished yet.

You were made for faith. Some people are blind to God, who He is and how He works. But faith sees Him and knows that He is working in every situation for our good. The more we see who God is and what He’s doing, the more we discover of His true purpose in our lives.

Reflection Questions

1. When did I last spend some time being intentional about thanking God?
2. What do I waste the most time on? What desire does it manipulate so that I'm not content?
3. Who are the people who feed my hope and help me to see a positive future ahead?