expanding your belief to the level of god's promise

​The problem with confining our beliefs to only what we can experience - well, some of us don't have consistently great experiences. In fact, some of us would rarely call our experiences great.

Add to that - especially for those who would rarely call their experiences great - there are a lot of us who don't feel like we have a whole lot of control over our experiences.

So for many, shrinking belief to experiences - to what one has actually seen and done and felt - that doesn't always come with a hope that future experiences are going to be kind. And when you grow to anticipate life isn't going to be kind, you can start to believe life IS unkind.

There is an alternative. There's a belief in a promise that all of our experiences are being funneled into an experience that will be great. God's promise that he's working all things to the good of the people who love him.

I suppose some of us turn to that belief because, well, what do I have to lose. The things I've seen aren't promising - maybe this promise from the unseen offers some hope.

Or, maybe you're like me, and you turn to the invisible promise because you've seen it made visible in your life too many times to ignore it.

You've seen light suddenly show up in dark too many times to ignore it. You've seen brokenness made whole. Drunkeness made sober. Lost made sane.

Too many times than you can count, you've seen your experiences turn for the good - a good you didn't ask for - a good you didn't see coming - a good that was beyond any control you have over your experiences.

In spite of those invisible experiences in my life - I confess I'm still prone to shrink my belief to the level of what I can see and feel and touch. Hopelessness seems to be the warning sign I feel when I'm headed there. And that's when I remind myself.

That's when I turn it over to a God who always expands my belief to the level of his promise. He always directs my experiences into a funnel pointing to goodness I never saw coming.