“Faith is the substance of
things hoped for the evidence of things not seen.” – Hebrews 11:1
To exercise faith, we must
first act without seeing and then we will see without acting. We must be
willing to trust God first and then God will bless us … act on our behalf …
accomplish His purpose. That is not to say that somehow our unbelief limits God.
But because of our unbelief, we will miss what God might do in response to our
belief. Our lack of faith limits us, not God. The exercising of faith is a
challenge to our flesh, but a joy to our spirit.
Having faith is easy when it
is not being tested. In Matthew 14, Peter started out by trusting, responding
to the word of Jesus. But then he felt the salt water splashing in his face. He
saw the waves rolling around him. He realized that what he was doing was
impossible. But there he was out of the boat and walking on the sea. The moment
he stopped trusting, he started sinking.
Like Peter, we find ourselves
in situations that seem impossible for us to overcome. We struggle with the
enormity of what we see and feel, and lack confidence in what we don’t see. We
lack confidence that we can really do what must be done. In our own minds, we
are certain that we won’t survive this, that we won’t be able to bear it
another minute. That is when we need to look to Jesus.
In my experience the greatest
enemy facing me and my desire to follow God and yield to His leading and ways
is, well, me! Not trusting God is part of my old nature, trusting God is part
of the new. I find it so easy to agree with God and acknowledge His precepts as
right, and yet, when faced with life I turn to me and not to Him. The phrase
“Living by Faith” is not meant to be a plaque on the living room wall or merely
a pleasantry that we acknowledge as being right. To live by faith in God means
to trust Him first.
Living by faith is not like
one of the bodily functions controlled by the autonomic nervous system, like
breathing and heart beating. Faith is something that you must pursue, to think
about. Living by faith is intentional. It is an act of the will. If you are
struggling in your faith, it is most likely that the source of the struggle is
you and not your circumstances. Like the man who sought help from Jesus for his
son.
“So He asked his father,
‘How long has this been happening to him?’ And he said, ‘From childhood. And
often he has thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him.
But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.’ Jesus said to
him, ‘If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.’
Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, ‘Lord, I
believe; help my unbelief!’” ― Mark 9:21-24
In this life on Earth, we are
not spared from hardship or heartache, but we can endure whatever life brings
our way if we will only have faith in the One who sent His Son, the One who
created us from dust and breathed life into us. Born once naturally and then
again in our spiritual rebirth when He sealed us with His Spirit ― the Breath
of God. I know that trusting God in the midst of the turmoil of life can be
difficult. Maybe you think it is impossible. At times I did.
There are consequences when
Christians neglect the disciplines of the Faith. If Sunday is the weekly sum
total of the time they spend with the Father, and maybe not even then, when the
test comes, and it will come, they will likely get a failing grade. Not because
God was not able to sustain them, but because they chose to ignore Him and
trust themselves. Why is something that seems so simple so hard to do? Because
it’s in the DNA of our old nature to trust ourselves even if it always leads to
failure. Remember that is the definition of insanity. Doing the same thing over
and over the same way, expecting a different outcome.
By Faith Alone By His Grace Alone And For
His Glory Alone
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