All in Faith, Prayer, Work
If you were to look around right now would you see God in everything about you? Could you look at the items in the room, or the trees in your backyard and say “God, how magnificent you are!”, or would you struggle to find him? Seeing God in every aspect of our lives, and in every scene, thing, or occurrence that makes up our lives, takes spiritual training.
How deep is your faith in Jesus Christ? Have you believed all your life that Jesus is the Son of God, and yet never been intimate with Him? Have you walked down the aisle weeping and confessing He is the Lord of your life, and then continued along with the reins of life held tight in your hands? Maybe you spend a lot of time trying to make yourself righteous by doing those things Jesus taught, but do them without ever having met our living Savior. In faith, true faith, we allow Him to make us righteous, and holy.
Do you go about rationalizing your own actions while claiming to be a servant of God and follower of Jesus? Do you use the good nature of God as an excuse for disobedience? If so, then you need to re-evaluate your faith. God may not be forcing you to do His will, but that doesn’t diminish it in the least.
Are You Facing trials in your life right now? Does it feel like God has abandoned you and let the world have its way with you? Well praise God for where you are right now because in your misery God is expanding the beam of our faith. It is in such times that our faith isn’t tested... it is stretched as we reach desperately for His hand.
Are you someone who prides themselves on common sense and morality? Do you believe it to be a substitute for faith in God? Throughout my life I have heard people say about someone, “they are a good person and do good things.” Is that enough to please God? Is that enough to earn you eternal life?
Have you found Jesus, and now you are attempting to reach out and bring others to Him? Well, are you certain you really know who He is? If you think you have sought and found Him, I wonder, because we don’t find Him through searching... God draws, or calls, us to Him. And, is there a great mystery in this? Let’s read these two passages.
When God calls or speaks to us we more often than not hear the message, and then receive a confirmation. Sometimes we aren’t quick in listening or answering and God repeats himself, but when we finally say “Here am I” to God, we still get confirmation. Does God sign the letters He sends you? Are you the signature on someone else’s note?
How do you live your life in faith? Do you seek excitement, advancement, or greatness as you pray and ask God for these things in the same breath as deeper faith? If you are a preacher in a small church filled with good families, do you plead in prayer for a megachurch and a television show that bears your name? No, our faith leads us to sainthood, not to be millionaires; all of that is of the world, and of little consequence to God.
The day after going to the altar and accepting Jesus Christ as our savior, Satan begins to work at us... will our faith withstand the onslaught? Believing is easy on the mountain, but when we go back to the valley we must cry out to the Lord for help... prepare yourself for that moment.
If our faith is predicated on understanding God then we will fail at it. God is more than the natural things that we can quantify, classify, and catalog; He is supernatural and until we grasp that fact and immerse ourselves in that reality we are doomed to never truly knowing Him.
Are you working hard to do all of those things that Jesus spoke of during His Sermon on the Mount? If so, how is that working out for you? Are you going at it alone, or are you leaning on Jesus for your success? Sometimes we get tripped up by His simplest sounding instruction, but most certainly we will fail if we struggle by ourselves.
How many little things of faith have you left unaddressed? I dare say the major items are either solved or you are working with God on them, but have you overlooked the small and seemingly less important nuances to your walk with Jesus?
Once we accept God as our creator and the God of our lives, and we have accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior and Redeemer, we receive by grace the gift of eternal life, but is that gift absolute? Is it a firm commitment on God's part? how about on ours as we receive it? The discussion of topics such as this can either divide us or bring us together.
God never leads us by the ear into salvation. He never forces us to acknowledge Him against our will, or badgers us until we finally give in. No, a tiny seed is planted within us and it becomes our responsibility to tend and grow it, or let it lie dormant and eventually whither away.
Are you tripping over your feet if faith? Do you begin to run in the understanding of God's will in your life only to fall flat on your face? Well, what do you do when that happens? Do you spring at once to your feet, slowly pull yourself up, or just lay there and cry? Then again, maybe the Lord delights in your way and you do not fall at all.