What happens when our faith is at risk? Have you ever contemplated the effect that we have on those around us when we slip into negative behavior or sin? How about the impact we have on our church, and Heaven? Even though our Christian walk seems totally personal... it isn't. Our faith has a ripple effect that touches all those around us, and beyond.
This morning as I read a devotional reading by E.M. Bounds, he stressed the importance of humility in respect to our ability to pray. I especially enjoyed reading his observation that "To be clothed with humility is to be clothed with a prayer garment." Are we clothed in this way as we enter into our prayer closets, or otherwise begin to pray? Do we think that we can be arrogant before God, or demand anything of the creator of all things? Let’s think now about our demeanor as we come before God, or attempt to pray in the name of Jesus.
When we are preparing to do something that frightens us or we are disheartened by events in our lives, have we forgotten that we are not alone? If we know who our God is, that He is all powerful, and that He goes before us, then these emotions, our fear and dismay, are signs that our faith in Him is not as strong as we have thought. Giving into fear and dismay are signs that we do not believe He will help us as He promised, or that we don’t believe He is able. So trust in our Lord, and know that these emotions that we are feeling are fed by the dark one, and aren’t right or true. In hard times lean on our Lord and know that He is able and there always.
Our trust should be in the Lord, but more than that, all of the confidence we exhibit is comprised of Him. If we trust in Him and exhibit His confidence, then we will be truly blessed. The doubt we once had will be gone, and the fear will have been overcome by the confident nature of our Lord. Oh, what a blessing this would be.
Does our faith suffer when we are struggling or when we find ourselves wanting? If it does then we need to learn a lesson from the Apostle Paul because he discovered the secret of remaining faithful regardless of the circumstances he was facing. We often believe that secrets are difficult to uncover, but in this case it is a simple one… the solution is that we trust in God to provide, to help us do all things, and that we trust in Him always.
We frequently say that all things are possible, but do we really believe it? If we hear someone praying an outlandish ask of God do we believe that He is able, or willing, to give it to them? Well, all things ARE possible, but quite often we throttle our prayers by only praying for those things that we know are possible in the physical world. I have been guilty of this before; how about you? Let’s think back on our prayers today and count the times we have asked the Lord to give us something we thought was impossible in the world. Can we think of even one time when we truly stretched our faith in prayer?
Although we are Christians, can we remember the last time we made peace in a bad situation? Perhaps we never have, but if by chance we can remember such a time, then we are truly blessed. If we are peacemakers then God promises us a blessing, but what will that blessing be, and in the moment when God reveals it to us will it be everything we imagined? In that blessed instant of unimaginable grace will the gift of holiness we receive allow us to see the brilliant glory of the great I Am, and hear Him call us sons?
When we accept Jesus as Lord are we open to a complete life altering change in who we are, or simply asking Him to alter us in a few handpicked ways? Do we want to become like Jesus and be transformed into His perfect image by becoming a better and more righteous person, or do we simply want to pick and choose those attributes He exhibits that we believe will serve us well in our existing lives? Let’s ask ourselves questions like this… Do I want to be a slightly kinder person, or do I want to be kind as Jesus is kind? Do I want to be more humble, or do I want to be perfectly humble as Jesus is? God wants us to be transformed, but to what degree are we willing to accept the transformation? Will we conform to a complete mental, behavioral, and spiritual change and in so doing obey God’s will for us in its entirety?
As Christian believers we are told not to carry our own burdens, but to give them to God, and to Jesus, and yet, many of us are reluctant to release them. Does this sound familiar? When I make this statement are we convicted by it? Are we carrying around heavy loads, and feeling the strain of everyday life that grows into worry, fear, and doubt, when we should be comforted by God’s promise of aid, and Jesus’s assurance that His burden is light?
We hear people proclaim that they are subject to no one. We listen to them as they brag that they are their own person, or sing songs proclaiming that they did it their way, and which are meant to glorify themselves or mankind. But these are the words and songs of the world and are not of God; they are not righteousness and will fall silent in eternity. If we believe that we belong to ourselves, or to anyone or anything other than our Holy Father, then we belong to nothing and are truly lost… our existence is fleeting indeed, and we are destined to die with the world. Who do we believe is God? Who is our shepherd, and who do we serve?
How much courage do we think we possess? Are we filled with fear and tell ourselves that we can’t do the challenging things in our lives? Does knowing that our God tells us to be strong and have courage help us face the intense situations, and the terrors of the world as we do His will? If we think that we are lacking in courage because we are afraid, we should look deeper into ourselves because courage isn’t the absence of fear… it is obeying God regardless of the fear that is present in us. When God, or angels tell us to fear not they are actually commanding us to stand firm in our faith and belief despite the natural human fear we are feeling.
Are we afraid to speak directly to God? Do we feel safer going to a deacon, an elder, or our pastor when we have sin issues in our lives? If you look inward and find that this is true of yourself, don't fear, there is nothing new in this... it has been happening since the time of our first sin. Men have been afraid to approach God in sin from the moment that Adam and Eve first hid themselves in the Garden of Eden, continued on to the time of Moses, and occurs today as well.
Do you focus and contemplate on God each day, and in everything you do? Is your imagination being used to reveal the Lord in every circumstance and activity in your life? These are the questions we will consider today, and we will see that our imagination is the portion of our belief that allows us to see beyond what our eyes can show us; imagination is the key to hope, and faith. We are about to examine the concept of spiritual imagining, which is not fantasy at all, but a very real key to the doorway into a world beyond our physical senses.
What do we imagine our faith to be? How great and unbound can we dream that God is? What binds us to the commonplace, and the everyday? It isn't God, or faith, but our own perception of their combined greatness and possibility. Oswald Chambers touched on this when he wrote these words…. "Is your imagination looking in the face of an idol? Is the idol yourself? Your work? Your conception of what a worker should be? Your experience of salvation and sanctification? Then your imagination of God is starved, and when you are up against difficulties you have no power, you can only endure in the darkness."