08/29/2017
How strong is your belief in Christ? Have you grown in your faith to the place where those things that are not seen leave shadows before you? Is heaven as real as the home you return to each night? When Jesus holds your hand can you feel the warmth of the blood coursing through it?
Following the death of Moses, God spoke wonderful words to Joshua as He gave him His anointing. He gave him encouragement and directed him, but not once did He feel inclined to command that his faith be strengthened, nor did He ask Joshua to trust in Him... because He already did. God didn't say who He was because Joshua already knew His voice. Listen as God speaks...
“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."”
Joshua 1:9 ESV
Jesus spoke words of encouragement as well. It is interesting that He also told His disciples to be brave. He encouraged their belief, but like God did with Joshua He did not tell them to increase it orctrust in who He was. Listen as He speaks to them...
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”
John 14:27 ESV
There is faith and it is in the things which are unseen; those things in which we believe "just because", out of hope, because our reasoning tells us they must exist, or because our heart leads us. The apostle Paul tells us such in Hebrews when he says...
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
Hebrews 11:1 ESV
But what happens when the thing we have faith in becomes real? What happens when Jesus is standing before us and like Thomas we put our fingers in the wound in His side? Something amazing happens at that moment... our faith becomes trust.
When I was in the sixth grade we were learning long division, and it was a complete mystery to me. Each day I would go to the chalkboard and the teacher would give me a problem to work, and each day I was befuddled and she would come walk me through the solution. I had trust in her, but had very little faith in myself. Then one day something amazing happened, I walked to the board, picked up the chalk, and as I stared at the problem she had written, a light came on in my head and the solution became perfectly clear to me. My chalk made the quick loud tapping sound on the board of someone who was confident they knew the solution... someone who trusted in their ability. On that day my faith had become trust; it became real to me.
Have you experienced that moment with God; with Jesus? Has your faith strengthened itself through the many lessons of life until you at last met God face to face, or realized that the person you have been walking with was actually Jesus like the two apostles did as they traveled to Emmaus? If it has then God and Jesus are no longer objects of faith to you, but have become real and in them you have trust.
Faith is still required, even in those things and people we trust; let me give you an example. I know that my mother loves me and wants only the best for me, but one afternoon when she said to me "choose your friends wisely", it required faith for me to believe she was right and to obey her. The roughnecked boy down the street that seemed so cool to me and was the object of our conversation, was a big man in school and I really wanted to be seen as his friend. I struggled with my mother's advice, but in the end my faith in her wisdom won out and my desire to be seen with him waned. A few years later he was arrested and convicted of a felony... he wasn't so cool anymore. Had I lost faith in my mother's advice and guidance I might have been with him in prison.
At some point in our faith we will meet God and His Son Jesus, and in that moment our great faith in them that has been building over days, months, or years, will transition to trust. The person who we have been speaking to as we walked the path of faith, and that we had hoped in was suddenly casting a very real shadow before us. Jesus became real and we could see him in every thing we did. God's voice went from that thing we heard in our minds to something we could hear with our ears. Are you there yet? Are you still one of the faithful, or have you become trusting?
We all set off on our journey as faithful. We have a seed of faith the size of a mustard seed imbedded within us, but somewhere along the way as our seed grows and grows we will meet the man who comes to tend it and hear the voice of He who created it. This might happen today, or it might not occur until we are called at resurrection, but it will most certainly happen. Some are destined for trust, while others among us will live a life of faith. Jesus acknowledged the two in His words to Thomas; He tells us something wonderful about our time of faith in Him...
“Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."”
John 20:29 ESV
So whether we have seen and now trust, or have not seen and believe totally by faith, there is a blessing in our belief. Much like my mother in whom I trusted, those who have heard or seen God and Jesus will still be required to have faith in them. We all must have faith in their Word and Commandments. As for those who are still believing in Them out of faith, you must continue to believe in them, and the Word and the Commandments as well, with no benefit in having seen or heard that which would relieve some of your burden by placing trust in its place... in this difficulty of belief, your faith, you will receive the blessing that Jesus spoke of with Thomas. Rest assured however that there is a day coming when all will see Jesus. It may be in this life, or the promised life to come when He leads us before the throne of judgement; but it will come.
Is your faith strong enough to allow you to see a misty shadow leading on before you, or has He revealed Himself to you and made that shadow real? Either way, His purpose for where you are at... trust, or faith, should not concern you because He leads us on in both. Perhaps He tells us to increase our faith in Him, or maybe like Joshua that particular grain of faith has become trust, but either way He casts a particular shadow in our lives and faith is required in what He says to us in scripture.
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for revealing yourself to some and requiring others to have faith in you throughout their lives. Father I thank you for the hope we have in seeing you face to face and the real examples you give us in the lives of some. I thank you more Lord for those many who believe without seeing, for you said they are blessed, and all must have faith in that blessing of which you spoke... those that trust, and those that have faith in you alike. Lead us along the way that brings us to you in fullness and allows us to face judgement with Jesus by our side... confident... and in that day all of us will be Trusting! Until then give us the faith we need to continue our walk towards righteousness and holiness; let each see the shadow before us until we all witness the dust rising from your feet and hear the voice of the Father.
Rich Forbes