Treasury of Scripture Knowledge: If ye: etc. or, ye not believe, it is because ye are not stable, 2 Chronicles 20:20; Acts 27:11, Acts 27:25; Romans 11:20; Hebrews 11:6; 1 John 5:10
Colossians 2:5-7 For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ. (6) Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, (7) rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
Why are many Christian's lives unstable, always faltering, never really maturing in the Lord or understanding what it means to walk in the Spirit? Genuine faith in the true God and His Son Jesus Christ is what brings stability and maturity to our walk with Him.
"FAITH--a firm persuasion or conviction," Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary of the NT...
Faith is not passive. It is an action we must take when attacked by the enemy based on what we truly are persuaded of and have a conviction of through God's Word by His Spirit. We must stand firm in faith, regardless of the attack, the suffering, the circumstances, we must be established by faith, stand firm in faith, and walk in faith, not giving in to the attacks and letting them defeat us. If we don't we will not be established, we will not stand, but we will fall prey to all the wiles of the enemy. In the Christian life, only faith enables us to stand. We will not benefit from all God would have for us or want to do in us, through us, and for us without it. God has given us all we need for life and godliness in Christ, but they must be appropriated by faith. That faith has to be in the One Who is faithful. It is not a force of its own. It has to be persuasion and conviction of God's faithfulness revealed to us in His written Word. This alone brings stability to the Christian life and walk.
So many Christians who are suffering trials will say, "Why is God doing this to me?" Or, "Why is God letting this happen?" But they fail to see they need to exercise the shield of faith that God has provided for them and hold it up during every trial, so that we are not defeated by it. Anytime we fail to do that the enemy can have his way with us and that is not God's doing. It is our failing to appropriate from Him what He has provided to overcome. Many things are allowed by God in our lives to train us to stand and become established and firm in Him, confident in Him, and able to overcome. He promises that it is for our good when we love Him and are called according to His purpose. We have to lay claim to His promises through all. We have to trust His plan through all. If we doubt His plan, His love for us, His care of our lives, etc. then we won't enjoy them or experience them.
We must take heed that we combine faith with hearing God's promises and stand on them or we can receive nothing, just as Israel in the wilderness when they doubted God and were not able to enter the promised land because of it.
Hebrews 4:2 For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.
Their lack of faith caused disobedience. Faith should manifest in obedience. Hebrews 3:18-19 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? (19) So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.
Sometimes trials cause us to lose faith...or what we thought was faith, but really was not the genuine faith in the Lord in a right way. We need to see God rightly and ourselves rightly. What happens then, is that what we thought was faith is burned away. The rug is pulled out from under our feet so to speak. We are left reeling, weak, vulnerable, thinking we are shipwrecked, not understanding. We feel we have no faith left. It's then that the Lord reveals Himself to us and we find a stronger faith in Him alone, Who He is, what He alone has done and can do in us, and for us. We begin to trust His faithfulness. Our faith is purified, established, and what was really just "dross" falls away. His faith comes forth in us, enabling us to stand. ¬
1 Peter 1:6-7 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, (7) so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
True faith will be brought forth and purified through the testing of trials. Faith in the wrong thing will be seen for what it is and a wrong relationship with God will be exposed. Faith in ourselves will be shown to fail. Faith in our faith will prove useless and powerless. But when we are forced to seek God for Who He is, we learn of Him and true faith in Him grows in our hearts and keeps us. True faith sees ourselves helpless and unworthy before God, and bows down in surrender to Him, trusting He alone is able to give any power to that surrender, trusting Him to do so. He alone is the power of our salvation, the strength of it, and the strength of our surrender. We simply cast ourselves at Him, and give ourselves up to Him. Sometimes we have to be stripped of all that we depend on in order to see that. We fail to see our spiritual pride when all things are going well. We fail to see our self-righteousness when it seems to be working for us. But God is faithful to chastise and to cause us to see our flesh when we are otherwise completely blind to it. He is faithful to humble us. It's in the place of humility we are finally able to find grace and receive it. If we fight against His humbling in our lives and hold onto our pride, trying not to "lose face" then that's what we'll be stuck with and we'll never really know God and become established in true faith in Him. We'll have to keep on trying to stand in faith in ourselves, our works, our pride, our doings, our abilities. Some people never learn, and they continue trying to cover up and prove themselves and make up for their lack holding onto their pride rather than seeing what God would want to give them in Himself if they would only let go. God sees it for what it is, He isn't fooled. Neither is the devil. He sees through it clearly and works to keep you there. Most others around you see through it also. It's really only you who are fooled.
"Let go and let God," is a well-known cliché that we hear a lot. But what does it mean? Let go of your own way, your own righteousness, your own self-confidence, and let God be your trust, your strength, your salvation, your righteousness, and all you need. It is all in Him. He continually works in our lives to bring us to that. And just when we think we're there, He shows us more of ourselves and our lack of trusting Him. He seeks continually to make us firm and established in true faith in Him alone. We must recognize His doing so and not rebel but yield ourselves to Him, casting all our care upon Him, "humbling ourselves under His mighty hand" until He, at the right time, raises us up (1 Peter 5:6-10).
Father, help us to not fear or doubt when it seems our faith and our world is crumbling down around us and we lose hope. Help us to remember to exercise faith in Your sure Word - Your promises that will never fail. Help us to remember to stand in faith that You provide through Your Spirit in us and the Word You gave us no matter how much we may tremble in weakness. Teach us Your ways and help us not to fear when You humble us and show us ourselves. Enable us by grace to submit ourselves to You in the process that is because of Your perfect love for us, working all things together for our good. In Jesus name may it be so.
If you want to know more about this salvation and are not sure you are going to Heaven, you can know. His Word assures us how we can know. Click here to read more.
Wonderful word of encouragement , and so true.
ReplyDeleteMegan