Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Faith

Hi all, I'm posting with an encouragement, a warning, and a prayer request. My encouragement concerns the faith I see evident in you all. There are not many places (even in churches) where there are teens who are passionate for God. There are even less places where those teens get together and talk about God and discuss him together. It's great that we are encouraging each other to fight temptation and follow God. I am so grateful for the example you all set for me and all your peers, for those younger than you, and even to some older than you. Thank you and keep loving God. My warning concerns temptation. A year ago I was going through a serious time of doubt about my faith. I was questioning God's existence and I was NOT a happy man. God met me at the youth retreat however, and renewed my faith in him. He made me passionate for him, and I went into the school year with love and passion for God. I thought my times of doubt where over. recently, they have started to come back. I times, I start to think about death and I wonder "what if there is no God?" and "is this a waste of time?" I try and comfort myself with evidences of God in this world and in my life, but we can't rely on just things we see; we need God's strength. My warning is that if you are fighting a temptation, that you would NEVER let your guard down. Keep praying that God would protect you from it, even if you don't seem to struggle with ti at the time. My prayer request is for my faith. I'd like to ask you to pray for me hard that God would draw me closer to him and that he would calm my fears and doubts. Thanks!

~Dave

Verse: "And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. (1 Co 10:13)"

14 comments:

one way up cast said...

I'll be praying for you Dave. Thanks for your humility!

I too was met at the youth retreat and I have gone through my struggles with faith as well, and ask that you would pray for me as well. :)

Great Post Dave :D

~Kylie

Elizabeth Kelley said...

Humble, humble people. :-) (And, as a reminder, "God opposes the proud, but gives GRACE tot he humble.") Yes, I totally will pray.

Daniel Garay said...

I think everyone goes through times like that... Thanks for sharing with us David...

At times, it is VERY hard to keep faith, especially in times like this, what with the economy and all. I think we all need prayer for faith...

katie p. said...

Wow, really good post. That is truly inspiring.

Dave said...

well it's less "why are these things happening to me?" and more "how do I know God really exists?" I have been really bless and I can't doubt God as far as blessing me goes. :)

Samuel said...

great post I will be praying for both of you. Please pray for me that I would see throughout the day the close relationship God wants to have and that the faith would be a lived faith not just a mental knowledge. I also desperately need prayer for grace in fighting sin because I am not standing for God in some sin areas of my life. Thanks for keeping the blog updated and it would be nice if you could add Bible verses to your posts so that we [readers] have references to help for application

Dave said...

Good point! I'll add one. :)

Elizabeth Kelley said...

Oh... duh. Why didn't we think of that? Sam, you're brilliant. I'll try to remember that.
Will pray, too!
Solo de gloria

Elizabeth Kelley said...

OH! O.K., that picture of your cat totally gave it away. :-) I gotcha now, Kt. Well, that was fun...

Allie said...

Thanks for the encouragement, and warning. I'll pray for u! I am so glad to be raised in this church cuz there really are great examples for us, even our age!
Thanks again :)
Allie




P.s. Happy Birthday! :)

one way up cast said...

Happy Birthday!

katie p. said...

Aww... how do you know my cat?
Yeah, I do think a Bible verse would be helpful.
That is so true, Allie. We are so blessed to have Godly parents who love us, and a great church as well!

Elizabeth Kelley said...

How do I know your cat?? Because he's always sitting on the porch when we drop your brother off from classes on Friday, demanding to be let inside the house.

katie p. said...

Lol! Yeah... he does that.