Without faith it is
impossible to please Him… —Hebrews 11:6
{CHAMBERS} “Common sense and faith are as different from each other
as the natural life is from the spiritual, and as impulsiveness is from
inspiration. Nothing that Jesus Christ ever said is common sense, but is
revelation sense, and is complete, whereas common sense falls short. Yet faith
must be tested and tried before it becomes real in your life. […] Faith is a
tremendously active principle that always puts Jesus Christ first. The life of
faith says, “Lord, You have said it, it appears to be irrational, but I’m going
to step out boldly, trusting in Your Word” (for example, see Matthew
6:33). Turning intellectual faith into our personal possession is always a
fight, not just sometimes. […] Until we know Jesus, God is merely a concept,
and we can’t have faith in Him. But once we hear Jesus say, “He who has seen Me
has seen the Father” (John 14:9) we immediately have something that is real,
and our faith is limitless.”
{ELGIN} When I woke up this morning, the thought “Seeing is not a
requirements for believing.” Was on my mind.
Then I read Chambers devotion for today.
The Spirit is speaking to me.
That ever happen to you?
Probably, but perhaps you don’t realize that is what is happening when
it does. To know something to be true
without evidence is different from “thinking” something might be true. Faith is spiritual and works on another plane
than our natural reasoning. I know that
I know, but don’t know how I know. I
struggle because I try to filter a faith-fact through my natural mind. Thomas struggled with believing that it was
Jesus standing before him, until he filtered it through the natural man – “I
must touch his wounds!” Jesus then said “Blessed
are those who believe and have not seen.”
(John 20:29)
Can you .. .will you trust Jesus
even when what you are trusting Him in is contrary to reason? I did not say contrary to the revealed will
and Word of God. Faith facts will always
be consistent with who God is and His truth.
But it may not make any sense. Martie
and I find ourselves in that place all the time. The hazards (if you will) of our
calling. Proverbs 3:5-6 says not to lean on our own
understanding. In other words, faith comes
first. Understanding will follow … most
of the time. When I was in Army Basic training at the ripe age
of 18, I had one particular drill sergeant, SSGT San Felice. He was 6’2”, red hair, from Puerto Rico. He had a very thick accent. He told us .. “I don’t care if you don’t
understand me, you better do it!” I
think I did a lot of unnecessary pushups!
Well, our life in Christ is that way in some respects. We hear God, we don’t understand what was
said, but we doubt God. The disciples
did that during the storm. Peter did
that while walking on the water. We do
that when God says do something that makes no earthly sense. It means that we have to give up our worldly
confidence and rest in God’s faithfulness.
Friend, that is the life we have been called to. “We live by faith and not by sight.” (2 Corinthians 5:7) What is it that God is telling you to do? You must choose. And to do nothing is making a choice . .and
that choice is not for God. “But if
serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day
whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the
Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as
for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15)
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