An Offering of Faith

A Reflection on the Second Reading for February 9th, 2020: ​
​Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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1 Corinthians 2

1 When I came to you, brethren, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God in lofty words or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness and in much fear and trembling; 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

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Faith is a complete trust or confidence in someone or something. Faith in God means to put your trust in His power, leaving behind the faults of human wisdom. Having faith in the Lord is freeing and it helps us to find our purpose. 

It took quite a while for me to notice the way that I tend to perceive faith at times. In periods of stress and chaos it is terrifying for me to not be in complete control. It’s hard for me to not be in a state of anxiety over the current issue. But if I really think about it, that sounds ridiculous! How is the anxiety helpful? How does it help to find a solution to the stressor? It is obvious that it is less than helpful. It can be really difficult to not be fooled into using stress to quantify how important things are to us. It is almost as if I think that the more anxious I am, the more the issue matters to me, and therefore the more I will strive to do well in it. However, with this mindset, I always end up in a state of exhaustion and sometimes even feel burned out. 

God doesn’t want that stress for us. He is longing to take that unproductive and harmful worry away from us. He doesn’t want us to feel out of control. He wants to empower us with His great wisdom. This surrender and faith will ultimately free us. 

I can only imagine the hours I have spent worrying about upcoming tasks… so, I can say for sure that when I take the time to actually surrender to God and have faith in Him, it really makes a difference. Take the time. Spend time with God and talk to Him about your struggles. Ask Him to help you. He wants to share His wisdom with you. I know that I can truly do nothing without Him, and even though I tend to rely on my lacking human wisdom a lot of the time, He is always there to accept my offering of faith and helping me to increase my confidence in Him. 

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Megan Noye

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