Is Faith More Than Believing?

Having faith in God does not just believe that He exists. The demons and Satan himself knows God exist, and we can’t actually call them faithful to God.

Having faith in God not just mean believing in Him and His words, but realizing them. Making them real! It has no use in believing in God and setting Him aside in your life like everything else. There is no use hearing His words if we do not listen to it. Having faith in God is to accept that HE IS GOD! That means He owns you and you have to submit yourself to Him.

Having faith is to rearrange one’s life in accordance to God and His designs. Faith does not only happen in our intellect, but in our very being. To have faith is to obey!

Why is Abraham called the "father of all who believe"? Because he obeyed God even though God was asking something improbable.  At the ripe age of 99, God asked Abraham to move out of the city into the desert and make him the “father of all nations.” At pass 100 years old, God promised that we would bear a son. And Abraham believed.

The Virgin Mary is its most perfect embodiment of faith. Why? Because God asked something impossible of her, virgin birth. And she believed and said “Fiat” (Be done to me according to your word).

Faith calls us to submit. Faith calls us to obey.  That is what real faith is.

If your faith is just something that happens in your head or in your mouth, chances are, it is not real.

For faith to be real, it has to be seen in our lives and our being. It cannot be “put under a basket”.

To obey (from the Latin ob-audire, to "hear or listen to") in faith is to submit freely to the word that has been heard, because its truth is guaranteed by God, who is Truth itself. Abraham is the model of such obedience offered us by Sacred Scripture. The Virgin Mary is its most perfect embodiment. (#144 Catechism of the Catholic Church)

When Christ Comes in Crisis

When Christ Comes in Crisis

We often feel god is close when our ship is sailing smoothly, but seldom when we are being rocked by storms. But Christ does come in storms. Sometimes, it is in the storms that His power is more manifested.

Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.

Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.

But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

“Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”

“Come,” he said.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”

Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

Matthew 14:22-33

Sometimes God permits crisis to happen to us to show how powerful His grace is. It is in these times that God shows us He is bigger than our problems. Jesus shows us that the winds and waves of life is no competition to Him.

When our natural strengths fail, the supernatural reveals itself and takes over. In crisis, we learn to rely on God than to ourselves, for we have proven that our own effort is seldom enough to survive it. It was in the buffeting winds and waves that Peter was given the chance to walk on water. Even when we feel that the winds and waves of life are drowning us, Christ’s grace is enough for us to rise above it. And all we need is faith.

It was faith that made Peter walk on water; it was also his lack of faith that made him sink. Faith opens us to the supernatural, to the impossible. And Faith in practice is Trust. That is why Jesus always reminds us, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

Faith makes the impossible possible. Faith let God be God. And He is the God of Wonders.

Crisis shows God’s power more magnificently. Crisis also gives us the opportunity to experience that magnificent power by trusting in Christ.

Sometimes we only appreciate the Light of the World shining upon us when we are enveloped by the darkness.


Sometimes we truly appreciate Jesus when He comes to us as our Savior. When He reaches out His hand and lifts us from drowning in our misery.

Crisis are always an opportunity to encounter Christ more powerfully, more intimately.

So don’t waste the opportunity.

Jesus we trust in you.

By Daxx Bondoc

What Faith Is and What Faith Isn't

Does Our Fears Block God’s Blessings?

One of the common motives for praying to God is fear. We pray for health because we fear sickness. We pray for prosperity for we fear poverty. We pray for companionship because we fear loneliness. Whether we know it or not, most of our prayers have an element of fear in them.

I believe that there is a good sense of fear. Like the fear of a flying bullet. Some fears help us preserve our life.

But when fear takes over and makes self-preservation an obsession, fear now direct our lives.

Would you trust a person ruled by fear? Would you invest your money to a fearful businessman whose only goal is to preserve your money and not make it grow? Would you trust a fearful manager to run your business who is always afraid of making mistakes that he could not make decisions? Or would a soldier trust a coward to look over his back in the battlefield?

No?

Could it be possible that God withhold his blessings to us because of our chronic fearfulness?

Then the one who had received the one talent came forward and said, ‘Master, I knew you were a demanding person, harvesting where you did not plant and gathering where you did not scatter;so out of fear I went off and buried your talent in the ground. Here it is back.’

His master said to him in reply, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I did not plant and gather where I did not scatter?Should you not then have put my money in the bank so that I could have got it back with interest on my return? Now then! Take the talent from him and give it to the one with ten. (Mat 25: 24-28)

The problem of being filled with fear is that we become crippled in life. Because of fear, we burry our talents and ourselves thinking that would protect us. The problem with being buried is that you cannot really do anything, not even move. Buried people are dead people.

Christianity is not for the coward. Being a Christian is a risky business. Just look where Jesus ended up. Hanging on the cross.

Life is not for the coward as well. Life demands risk. To live is to love. And loving someone is always a risk.

If God granted you your prayers, what would you do with it?

If God granted you the partner you have been praying for, would you love her? Or would you cage her because of the fear of losing her? Would she make you a loving and joyful person? Or would she make you a miserable obsessive and jealous person?

Until one learn what it means what really means to love and learn to let go of his fear of loneliness, the gift of a partner might just end up as a curse, for you and most especially for her.

If God granted your prayers for wealth, would it make you giving or greedy? Would that wealth be shared to the poor, or be locked up?

Fear is like a black hole. It sucks everything inside oneself. You are always looking out for yourself that you forget to look at others. We become obsessed with having a (false) sense of security is that we forget to live. Most especially we forget to love.

Until we overcome this kind of unhealthy fear in ourselves, we are unfit stewards of God’s Providence.

Why?

Because we stop being stewards and become thieves. We grab for ourselves what God has entrusted to us to give away.

Until we learn to deal with our fears, we will always be stuck. Buried.

And Providence might be delayed or worst, denied.

So let a bigger faith overcome our big fears.

Let us remember that there is a perfect loving God who loves us.

“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.”- 1 John 4:18

Our fears may be many and enormous.

But God’s love is bigger.

Infinitely bigger.

Written by Daxx Bondoc

Is Fear Ruling Your Life?

Fear can shape our lives. Many of our motivations are based on fear. Men have sacrificed their integrity for the fear of poverty. Those who fear oppression have become bullies.

We live in uncertain times in an uncertain world. Wars, disasters and for many the worst of them all, economic breakdown, is a present reality. Many of us feel insecure and unsecured.

But fear is not a good motivation in life. It might be, every now and then, for self-preservation but not as a rule.

One problem with fear is that it brings out our worst memories and emotions. It prevents us from thinking clearly. It leads us to protect ourselves so much that we have forgotten to go out and live. Fear is a prison where the lock is from the inside.

One way of dealing with fear is to deny it. “I am not afraid.” (But you know you are.) Self-denial can only last until you cannot deny the reality of it anymore. And it does not really deal with the root of the problem it just pretends that the root is not there.

Another way of dealing with it is controlling your environment to avoid a fearful situation. If you are afraid of poverty, be rich. If you are afraid of suffering, do whatever you can to live a comfortable life. This could work, if you have the resources to pull it off.

But what about the rest of the world who is struggling to survive?

How about those who can’t deny their present reality and don’t have the current resources to get themselves out of their fearful situation?

Will fear be king?

To those who does not trust God, Yes.

Those who does, No.

Those who trust God know that we can do all things in Christ who strengthens us. Now surviving our problems might not be a walk in the park, it might be more of a road to Calvary, but Jesus does carry the cross with us. He will also be there to resurrection us. Jesus has the final word in our problems. And there is always victory in Him.

“These things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you shall have distress: but have confidence, I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

Christ can conquer our problems, if we let Him. But we must remember that our problem was “conquered”, that there was first a battle. Victory only comes after a war.

God did not promise us that He will prevent any problems from happening to us. But He did promise that we would survive them.

The Bible is filled with “do-not-be-afraids”, because God knows we are. And He also continually reminds us that we shouldn’t.

"Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." So we say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid." - Hebrews 13:5-6

Even if our worst fears happen to us, in Jesus we overcome them.

Christ has defeated death, could he not defeat our fears?

Written by Daxx Bondoc

The Greater the Struggle, the Deeper Faith

The darker the night the stars shine more brightly.

Life’s hardship can be overwhelming. Our fears, anxiety and emotions can overpower us. They can devastate us and bring us down to our knees.

Adversities reveal to us who we really are. It shakes all that is superficial and leaves what is real. Strength can only be confirmed when it is tested. The strength of a tree and its roots can only be tested amidst the winds of a storm. The strength of ship can only be known if it survives the tempest of the sea. And the strength of a building if it still stands after a major earthquake. All that is weak shall fall.

Hardships reveal to us how weak we are. Our imagined self-confidence and faith will not stand the blows of life. Anything that is not deeply rooted in reality will wither and die.

How do we survive life’s adversities? Will we be overcome by the darkness?

That is up to us. If we choose to quit, then it is “the end.”

But for those who want to move on, grace is available. There is a light that no darkness can overcome. It is the Son-light. The light of the Son of God, Jesus.

Many of us are living in the illusion that we have great faith and confidence, specially when things are going well around us. But it is a whole different matter when things go downhill. It is really hard to feel good when you are just desperately keeping your head afloat.

It is in these dark times where God offers us a deeper kind of faith. It is in these times thate we can really put our trust in the Lord. Deep faith lives in the darkness. It is trusting God when all evidences says not to. “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." – John 20:29.

If our faith is born in adversities, it is a faith that is tried and tested. It is a faith that is real, and not just something our imagination made up. It is a faith that trusts God stubbornly.

With this faith we can say:

“What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us.” – Romans 8:35-37

Deep faith can only be found in Jesus. Faith is a grace, a gift of God. It is something we decide to ask and receive or ignore and deny.

So if you feel you are being crushed or overwhelmed by life’s trials, call out for Jesus. Ask Him for the grace of real faith that is firmly rooted in the Rock, who is Christ Himself. And He will give it generously.

"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” – Matthew 7:24

Jesus, I place all my trust in you.

Written by Daxx Bondoc