Date Nights Need Dinner Reservations

I’m an eternal optimist. My wife, on the other hand, is not.

A while back, my wife had asked us to go on a nice date night. And no, that doesn’t mean Best Pizza and Brew, or Phil’s BBQ (my bad). She wanted the whole experience. Candlelight, nice steak, the three courses, and as I like to say, the vibes.

So I began my search. After great research I stumbled upon the restaurant Nick’s on State in Carlsbad Village. The atmosphere looked amazing, the food looked delightful, and the reviews were very positive. Anna arrived home from work to go on our date so we made the journey northwest from RB. After being in the car for about 15 minutes, she asked where we were going and I proceeded to tell her. She said, “Oh yeah, I remember hearing that place is great, and I’m so glad to hear you got us a reservation!”…. The silence that followed quickly communicated that I had in fact not gotten us a reservation. She then responded by saying we should find a new spot to eat, and I informed her “It’ll all work out, have a little faith.” Needless to say, we have not eaten at Nick’s on State, and I now know to make reservations on Friday nights.

The difference between being an optimist and having faith is that an optimist hopes for something that is not promised or guaranteed; however, having faith is believing that something promised will come to fruition.

Nobody promised me a table at Nick’s, so I didn’t get it. However, God makes a lot of promises.

The part about faith that none of us like is that we often can’t see it, right? Hebrews defines it as:

Confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

- Hebrews 11:1

So what does that mean?

Being faithful to God is a practice of being confident in God’s intentions, and aware that no matter what happens, He has our best interest at heart. It’s a practice of holding onto hope found in His promises and relinquishing outcomes.

So why do we have such a hard time having faith, or being faithful to God?

Well, I believe it’s often because we spend a lot of time hoping for things to work out the way we want them to, and then when they don’t, we blame God for not coming through on something He never promised in the first place. But have you ever had someone say that you didn’t follow through on something that you never promised? That’s pretty frustrating if you ask me! So how do we practice faithfulness? Well, we learn God’s promises.

In John 16:33 Jesus says,

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

- John 16:33

Let’s just start with this promise today….

God promises that you and I will have trouble, but, He leads by saying we are going to have access to peace and ultimately have victory.

I’m so encouraged by this verse because when I face trouble I often lose faith, but shouldn't trouble renew my faith? Jesus promised it so I’m seeing that the words of God are coming true in my life, and if He said I’d experience trouble, then I can also believe that His promise of peace is true for me today, too!

I’ll leave you with this verse and I hope you take the time to read the entire chapter. I love The Message translation of Hebrews 11 and I hope you take the time to read the whole thing.

The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see. The act of faith is what distinguished our ancestors, set them above the crowd.

- Hebrews 11:1 (MSG)

May you discover a life worth living and practice faithfulness by reminding yourself of the promises God actually made through the Scriptures, and surrender all of life's outcomes in light of them.

DJ Brennan

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