"Faith"

I grew up as a nice little Christian boy. In a nice Christian home. I was the fourth child, though I did have to learn to pay for things myself as soon as I started earning. I had a nice upbringing. I grew up under pastors and elders of Churches. I had a strong faith. . . or did I?

My faith was circumstantial. It relied on my situation, my friends and my parents. If one was to fail, the lot would slowly cave in. Eventually something did fail and my faith crashed and burned. I stopped caring about God, about doing the "Christian thing". I became a non Christian within a matter of weeks. Though I didn't want to admit it at the time to anyone I knew in my heart that I had turned my back on God.

Long story short I came back to God. What is interesting about my little snap shot of my life is what my faith was like. My "faith" was a bubble that required perfect harmony of outside influences for it to survive and work. I see it in a lot of Christian youth today. I see that if they were left to life, without even one of the things that holds their faith together, they would crash and burn. Where is your faith? Is your faith reliant on the people and social structure around you?

Faith in Christ should never be built around others, your social status or your environment. Your faith should be relationship based. A relationship with God that is. Why? Because God Never fails. He Never changes. He Always loves. People fail, society changes, we are always searching for something we cant seem to find. If your '"faith" is reliant or built around who your friends are or your environment, start changing that by talking to God honestly, normally. Don't get all religious on Him, he doesn't want you to mention His name 50 times in your prayer. He just wants to have a proper relationship with you. Don't fall into the trap I did and let your life rule your faith.

God Bless

LJA