Misunderstood Faith

Ponder for week 1: Have you ever believed that someone else’s faith was not being lived out correctly?

There’s a place in scripture that presents the faith-filled, exhausted, and barren Hannah. Hannah was one of two wives of a man named Elkanah. She was the wife who received a double portion from her husband. The wife who had the love of her husband although they did not share a child. Yet, Hannah wanted a child.

Inside of her cry to God she gives a promise. She tells God that if she is given a son she will give it back to Him. She gives God specifics and she gives God her heart. As she prayed, Eli the priest observed her. Not only did he observe her, he judged her. Her passionate prayer reflected her passionate desire.

But in judging her, he misjudged her. Hannah corrected the priest. He thought she was drunk. Have you ever mistaken faith-filled passion for something else? Something un-Godly? Have you ever thought the level of someone’s Christian walk was too intense or too dramatic? Or even possibly, not intense or dramatic enough.

Of course you have because we all do. Depending on how you were raised or told how Christianity should “look” or “sound” you think you know the correct way a fellow believer’s actions should portray their faith.

Sometimes you, me, and we can think we know how another person should look and move around in their faith walk. Like Eli, we might mistake passion for something else. We might judge. We might interfere and tell them out loud to stop.

The beautiful part of this place of scripture is that Hannah corrected Eli. She not only corrected him, but she explained her passion in crying out to the Lord. Now, of course none of us feel like we have to explain ourselves to anyone. Not even the spiritual leaders, as Eli was a priest. But Hannah shows that sometimes it’s necessary to let people know why our walk is moving a certain way.

For Hannah, her explanation led to the priest agreeing with her. Hannah moved into an answered prayer. A year later, she had the son she prayed for, promised God she would give back to Him, and had become a vital piece to the story of the Christian faith. How beautiful is that?

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As we begin our “You Think You Know” series I encourage you to rest with a few thoughts…

1. You absolutely DON’T know how other believers’ prayers, worship, and prayers may look. So, try not to judge.

2. Your judgement may need to be replaced with agreement so keep an open mind.

3. No, we don’t have to explain our walk to anyone. Yet, telling someone our faith actions could open their mind.

I pray our 1st week has your mind ready and set to dive into the Word for what we think we know.

Keep going y’all.

Xoxo – Pastor Dawana