Faith Gives Me Strength

(Read Psalm 18 and Romans 8)

Merry Christmas! Did you know that for a large part of the Christian world, Christmas will be observed on January 7. This includes the Greek, Russian, Eastern Orthodox Churches, as well as the Coptic Orthodox church. A wonderful friend of mine, and coincidentally my next door neighbor, was kind enough to share his faith story for this beautiful holiday.

Almost 4 years ago, I knocked on his door and introduced myself. “Hi, you don’t know me, but we’re going to be your neighbors,” I said. He smiled and warmly invited me inside. We talked for over a half-an-hour. As we chatted, I thought how much I was looking forward to being in the same community as he and his family. His english was perfect, even though he told me he was from Canada and spoke with an accent that didn’t sound like anything from this part of the world.

After we moved in, my wife and I became fast friends with (H) and his family. He was born in Egypt and moved to Canada at the age of 17. His wife moved to the U.S. much earlier. I have always enjoyed meeting people from different states, countries, and cultures. There is so much to learn from them and so many ways we can collectively grow. I didn’t assume that he was a Christian, since 90% of people in Egypt are Muslim. One Sunday he mentioned that they were heading out to worship in their Coptic Church.

The Coptic faith is a Christian orthodox religion based in Egypt that mainly services Africa and the Middle East. Traditionally, the Coptic Church was believed to have been established by the Apostle Mark, sometime around the middle of the 1st century. In my naive American mind, all that I knew about Coptics were from videos of their persecution by extremists I saw on the news.

“I have learned peace as I’ve gotten older,” (H) told me. “I’m not one of those people who are always looking for differences.” At the age of 17, he set out to travel and saw a lot of the world. It gave form to his beliefs. “I learned a lot about people.” He no doubt learned a lot about himself too. This statement instantly made me think about what Paul wrote to the Colossians.

“In Christ there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all.”
Colossians 3:11

Colossae was a diverse city which probably included many different groups of people, as mentioned by Paul. In Christ’s eyes, all of them are equal. Paul David Tripp wrote that, “Colossians focuses on the supremacy and the sufficiency of Christ Jesus.” There is nothing more complete or higher. Jesus above all things.

Have you always believed?

“By the time I was 2 or 3, I was in daycare at church,” (H) replied. “When I was school age, I was learning religion in classes,” he added. I asked him if there were any significant moments early in his life that he could point to. “I will never forget when I was 5, I was in a Christmas play. It had a significant impact on my life.” (H) didn’t remember a specific message or who or what he portrayed in the program. It could have been a tree, we both laughed. With God, the specifics don’t matter. What matters is that something etches our hearts with lifelong effects.

“The only thing I know is the fear of not following, the fear of punishment.” (H) is a really intelligent, compassionate, and gentle man. He speaks 2 languages fluently and a third almost as well. It’s important to clarify my friend’s statement. He’s not a fearful, guilt-ridden guy. He’s a left-brained math guy. (H) is not fearful of God. He’s in awe of Him. My friend is fearful of being stuck on the other side of a bottomless cavern with no hope of bridging to the other side.

He revealed more, “There is good and bad inside everyone, it’s up to you what you become. Disagreement comes from the inside.” My friend went on to explain that people who he has met in his travels often misinterpret their understanding of things. “They judge so much,” he said. He then quoted an Egyptian translation, “Your judgement is so harsh, nobody will understand it.” In Deuteronomy, God said, “Vengeance is mine.” It’s not up to mankind to dish out punishment and condemnation. It’s up to us to know that God has His own ways, but not necessarily for us to understand them.

While my friend is an active worshipper at an orthodox church, he doesn’t always understand or feel at home with the longstanding traditions. For example, to receive Communion, he is not permitted to eat or drink 9 hours preceding it. “It gives me so many questions,” he explained. But he doesn’t believe in arguing about the small stuff. It doesn’t change how or what he believes.

(H) then quoted Paul in a modern, direct way. “Don’t get into dumb conversations,” he smiled.

Again I say, don’t get involved in foolish, ignorant arguments that only start fights.
2 Timothy 2:23

Paul condemned these type of arguments as a form of spiritual cancer. Shallow believers are examples of this foolish dialog. I have had some mellow disagreements with my friend, over political, societal, and social topics, but none of them have changed our views of each other. None of them have changed how we feel or how we value each other.

“I thank God for everything! I accept Him.” (H) said as he unfolded the pillars of his faith. “I have doubts at times, but I feel they make me stronger.” We shifted our conversation to non-believers. “What do atheists do, when something bad happens?” he asked. “I would go crazy,” he said. A growing group of Americans polled said they have no religious affiliation. 20% of our population has no baseline of faith. 20% of our population also has no lifeline. “Faith gives me stamina,” (H) declared. “It gives me strength and endurance.” My friend told me about younger believers he has met who feel that they’re entitled to easy rewards from God. “They just expect good things to happen.”

In your strength I can crush an army; with my God I can scale any wall.
Psalm 18:29

When David was down and despondent, he wrote to God. He talked with God. David was a hero in many ways, the greatest King ever of Israel. But, like us, he was also the greatest sinner ever. David wrote most of the recorded Psalms in the Bible. (H) said, “When I feel down, I read Psalms. David’s Psalms lift me up.” My friend then played some Psalms for me in Arabic. In this language, many of them are still sung. There is a soothing calm, quiet, and peaceful quality to them. It’s so interesting, yet not surprising that neither language, spoken nor sung, make any difference to the true meaning of the Psalms.

“When I first came to Canada, I had nothing. No friends, no life. I was depressed.”

What did you do? What could you do?” I asked.

“I prayed to God. I had to fight and my faith kept me going. It kept me running. A lot of people here, take things for granted.” My friend takes nothing for granted. He knows his source of his hope. He knows that neither his life, nor his blessings are random. “My faith gave me inner strength,” he said. Reliance on God makes us strong just as it made David strong.

My friend went through low times at a vulnerable age. While he might have felt alone, he wasn’t. He had a problem solver, a bridge-maker, a weight-lifter, bigger and better than he ever imagined. We don’t arrive at this condition without faith.

Is Your Faith Worth the Risk?

“When I’m talking to a non-believer, I tell them, there’s a risk for non-believing. Even if you’re right, what if there’s a .001% chance that you’re wrong?” Then, the aha moment from my friend. “There’s no going back. Then what do you do? If you’re wrong, where are you going to go?”

To observe the celebration of Christmas, my friend prepares his heart. “I listen to prayers. The voice makes me feel good.” As he played more of them, I was relaxed and comforted even while not understanding the language. I imagined how much more comforting this would be for people who understand this tongue. But, for believers, the message is universal. “When I listen to this it makes me forget the world.”

Where does your hope come from?

(H) looked up and thought for a moment. He said, “I find hope in everything that has happened in the past in my life.” I had never heard that exact answer before. It was powerful. It was reassuring and a real teaching statement. Thanks to Jesus Christ, we are never stuck in the mistakes of our past, we are raised up from them. Each day comes with a new chance to be less sinful and more righteous than the previous one. With each day, we are one step closer to the perfectness that God has created us for.

My friend finds answers of hope in God. I am a better person for knowing him and learning from him. We are from completely different places, cultures, and backgrounds and yet we both believe in the same life-saving God. My friend and I celebrate the birth of the very same Savior, me last Saturday and him on January 7th, the Savior who delivers peace for our good.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28

Key Application:

• Look at your deepest struggles. Can you prevent yourself from making more mistakes in life, from judging others? Nope. But there is a light. Christ is in all of us. Look at others and yourself as He looks at us. With your faith, God can give you the opportunity to finish races, to scale walls, to lift others. Pray that through Jesus, you gain the wisdom, strength, and stamina you need to be a better version of you.

Where else in your life can you live out the teachings of Christ? Look for next week’s Devotion.