I think this is such an important idea, so I am reblogging this post. Too many of us are spreading around our complaints and grumpiness! Smiling by faith is truly an act of faith. Loving by faith too! Do any of you have some examples to post? It would be interesting to hear some stories.
Smile by faith when you can’t smile by feelings. I saw this when I was browsing through Tony Evan’s website.
Made me think… 
We could also say, “Love by faith when you can’t love by feelings.” The interesting thing about that is the feelings will often follow your faithful choice. I’ve heard people say, love is a choice, but now I’m starting to get it. There is so much I still need to learn. Choosing to act by faith, will often result in your heart changing. I’m choosing to act by faith and my heart is continually changing, but God has a way of keeping me on my toes by having me go through the hard things until my heart changes. Thank God He loves us enough to let us go through trials so that we have a chance to choose faithful actions. I know that sounds strange, but what…
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Apples of Gold 
We choose to go through the hard things not God, He does not willingly afflict us as the Scripture below confirms, like the Prodigal son we reap what we sow and so suffer until we come to our senses and repent or Satan puts us to the test or he motivates others to hurt us and accidents and chance also happens.
To say God does evil to bring good out of it is slander but He does work everything for good in our lives and whatever we suffer He is with us and gives us the strength to endure so we don’t have to be Happy Clappy about our suffering but we can be thankful and rejoice that God is with us as we go through it.
Lamentations 3: 33 For God doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.
Isaiah 43:1-3 – Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are mine. When you go through deep waters and great trouble, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown! When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you. For I am the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Saviour.”
We choose to go through the hard things not God, He does not willingly afflict us as the Scripture below confirms, like the Prodigal son we reap what we sow and so suffer until we come to our senses or Satan puts us to the test or he motivates others to hurt us.
To say God does evil to bring good out of it is slander but He does work everything for good in our lives and whatever we suffer He is with us and gives us the strength to endure so we don’t have to be Happy Clappy about our suffering but we can be thankful and rejoice that God is with us as we go through it.
Lamentations 3: 33 For God doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.
Isaiah 43:1-3 – Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are mine. When you go through deep waters and great trouble, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown! When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you. For I am the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Saviour.”
Jeremiah 29 :11-12 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Christian Love in Christ Jesus – Anne.
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Thank you for your comment! Yes, I agree that we don’t have to be happy clappy about difficulties that happen in our lives. I also agree that God is only doing good for us one hundred percent of the time. He only allows tests and trials that will help us grow and get closer to him. Therefore, even when I’m in a test and trial, I don’t have to go around with a gloomy face and disposition. I can choose to continue to smile by faith, think of others instead of my troubles and see what God is doing in the situation.
An example in my life: I’m an ESL teacher. I don’t feel it’s appropriate for me to drag my troubles into the classroom. Sometimes I’m definitely feeling a bit gloomy as I start my day. But when I go to class I just start smiling and doing my best to “get in the groove”. Pretty soon, it’s them that help me and I forget whatever it was that was troubling me. It DOES work!
I’d still like to hear other examples of how this works in other people’s lives. Loving by faith works too. There is at times a student that is hard to love. Perhaps they are very needy. I try to love them anyway and pretty soon, God shows me something quite adorable about that person. I’m not trying to toot my own horn, just trying to think of examples because it does work. God is amazing!
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Sorry ephesians413 I thought you were Bob, it seems you are using his Blog name, last night when I commented it was late and I did not check your picture. Welcome to the Blogging world or did you have another Blog before?
First I would like to affirm again that it is not God who allows us to suffer to teach us, we suffer because there is evil in the world, Satan controls it and he puts us to the test as he did to Jesus, Abraham, Job, Peter, Paul etc , we also reap what we sow and others hurt us and this grieves God as it grieves us to see our Loved ones suffer.
But if God was to stop all evil than He would have to stop the world and time is short but He is patient, He knows those who are His and it is not His will any of us Perish, meaning to be separated from Him eternally in Hell, He is giving us time to come to our senses and to repent like the Prodigal son did and like him we will reap what we sow until we do but we will or He would not of chosen us by His foreknowledge of our hearts repentance.
By our sinning we are distancing ourselves from God, good and evil cannot be in Unity, yes we are choosing to have time out and God won’t force us to repent, this is His Discipline, He won’t intervene except to save our lives till our allotted time has ended, but we do share in the blessings He provides others, He will even extend our time on earth and He uses the Body of Christ to chastise us when we won’t listen to the Holy Spirit’s promoting, like He did with the Prophets of old. But what a wonderful welcome Home when we do repent, which He has been longing for and the Angels rejoice too and our Spiritual Banquet is never ending.
When we go through Satan’s testing by his hard trials and temptations, seeking to prove we are his, God promises to be always with us as the Scripture I shared in my first comment confirms, He gives us His strength to endure and for every tear we cry He will bring Joy, He captures them in the vessel of His heart, we will be greatly rewarded, His plans for us are good not evil and for this we give thanks and rejoice.
Sorry it has taken a lot of detail ephesians413but I would like to respond fully if wanted, to your comment in regard to the difference between inner Joy and outer Happy Clappy , but I will say now that our emotions are a gift but yes if we allow it, some will lead us into bondage too, but we don’t have to wear a mask, we can be real as you also said.
Jesus was known as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and He cried, Paul also did not pretend all was well or did Peter or Mary etc but we can always rejoice in our hearts even if we have a tear in our eye because we know we are never alone in our tribulation but we should also be real and seek help when needed. I was known as Happy Annie and so was popular and always invited to Parties etc but I would go home and cry and want to die!
Blessings – Anne.
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Thank you for your clarification. I wasn’t aware that there were other blogs with the same name. I google searched the name and discovered that there are quite a few. So, I guess I’m in good company. More proof that there is nothing new under the sun! Thank you.
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