Faith in my coffee

I believe in what my coffee can do for me. Don't you?

Have you had your coffee this morning? If you don’t do coffee, have you had your fortifying morning beverage of choice yet? I love coffee. I start every morning with my coffee and my Jesus time.

Coffee energizes the connection between my brain and my mouth. Before I have coffee, words just don’t happen, y’all. If you don’t believe me, travel with me. It’s apparently quite entertaining, especially when I’m jet lagged.

The point is, I trust my coffee. If you give me a mug of coffee to drink in the morning, I trust that it will wake me up. That’s what coffee does. How do I know? Because I’ve drunk coffee before, and I know that it jump starts my brain.

I see the coffee in the mug, and, without even drinking it, I believe that it will do what coffee does. So, yes, I have faith in my coffee. And if you approach your coffee the same way, you do too.

Faith is a tricky topic sometimes, so I’m glad we have Hebrews 11.

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

Hebrews 11:1 (NIV)

Did you get that? Faith is confidence in our hope. We already know that hope is trusting God to keep His promises. So faith is being convinced that He will.

Faith is conviction; Hope is trust.

You can’t separate hope and faith. One blends in to the other. Faith leads to hope, and hope can’t exist without faith. The question comes when you examine the source. Who or what are you trusting?

You can have faith in anyone or anything. You can even have faith in your coffee. But what if your coffee is decaf? If you’re trusting decaf coffee to wake you up, you’re sure to be disappointed. If you have faith in yourself, you’re going to fail.

Do you doubt God? Many people do. But are you sure you were trusting Him to begin with? Or were you trusting your own expectations? Or were you trusting someone else’s life experience?

Be sure that you are trusting God and His Word alone. Not your preconceived notions. Not what social media or some celebrity pastor has told you. Not even what life has taught you.

If you put your confidence in the wrong source, you will be disappointed. But that doesn’t mean it’s God who disappointed you.

Questions for Reflection:

• Do you find it difficult to trust God?

• What is a promise you don’t feel He has kept?

• Have you told Him how you feel about that?

Special Gift!

I had intended to get this out sooner, but it’s ready now! Every month I’m going to send out a PDF of the Scripture verses we’re going to cover as well as verses for you to memorize. It’s completely optional, of course, but I know that some people like to journal Bible verses. And if anyone wants to memorize Scripture, it helps to have a list.

You can find the list on the home page, but I wanted to send it to you this way as well. I hope you’re enjoying the devos! I certainly am!

Week 48 Memory Verse: