09/19/2018
Do you practice your faith? Practice is one of those words with more than a single meaning, but I am talking about our doing something repetitively in order to improve how well you do it, or to do something regularly. If this is how you approach your faith, is that really enough? By way of example, how did Noah, or Abraham approach their faith? Did they simply practice it, or did they live it... walk in it... trust it?
“By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.”
Hebrews 11:7 ESV
So often we treat our faith as if it was a skill, and we go about practicing it’s tenets until we think we have perfected them before we actually allow ourselves to live them for real. Do you do this? It is a natural inclination because this is how we raise our children, or approach new things in our day to day lives. We practice playing a musical instrument to perfect our ability before we perform a concert, or we practice a sport and perfect the skills it requires before we play in real games. Faith is not like this.., sure we will make mistakes, fall down, perform poorly, or even wonder if we are doing it correctly at all, but faith is like breathing; we don’t get the luxury of practicing it... we must do it in real life from the very first gasp we take of it.
Noah didn’t build a tiny rowboat, and then a small cabin cruiser, and then a yacht, and then a barge, before at last building this huge ark that would carry two of every animal. He didn’t tell God that he would be glad to build the boat He wanted, and gather the animals, if he could only go to shipbuilder’s school first and take a quick course in animal husbandry. No, faith isn’t something we have the luxury of practicing... it is something we learn as we go. It is life itself, much like breathing, or the beat of our hearts. What did Noah say when God had finished instructing him? Listen to scripture...
“Also take with you every sort of food that is eaten, and store it up. It shall serve as food for you and for them." Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.”
Genesis 6:21-22 ESV
There was no practice, no trial run, just faith, and obedience. God wrapped up His instructions by telling Noah to gather provisions, and without saying a word, scripture tells us that Noah did all that God had commanded him. This is living faith, and not practicing it. Do you approach God’s call like this? Do you step right out, or do you quibble with God telling Him how you don’t think you can do what He is asking? Are you living your faith, or do you want to practice it some more?
What about Abraham? Noah just built a boat... what about Abraham, what did he do in faith? Oh, he must have practiced for a while until he perfected his walk with God... or did he?
“By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.”
Hebrews 11:8 ESV
Nope, Abraham stepped right out and did what God instructed; he left home, and he also took his son to sacrifice him and had to be stopped, this doesn’t sound like practice to me! Abraham lived his faith from its first breath. This isn’t to say that he didn’t find some things that God asked him to do to be a little amusing, or incredible, but he believed, and he did them. Remember his reaction when God told him that he would Father a nation even though he and Sarah were old?
“I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her." Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, "Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?"”
Genesis 17:16-17 ESV
Amused as he was, he believed, and immediately he took every male and circumcised them as God had instructed...
“Then Abraham took Ishmael his son and all those born in his house or bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham's house, and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very day, as God had said to him.”
Genesis 17:23 ESV
So how do we approach our faith? Do we practice it, and practice it, and practice it, thinking that one day we will have finally perfected it? Do we do good works and confuse them with the faith we should be living every moment of every day? Here is a test... try not breathing. That’s right, hold your breath! In short order you will pass out, and once you do your body will begin to breathe again. This is our faith, and we live because of it, and in it... no practice breaths at birth... and no practice faith either. We breathe or we die, and we have faith or we die as well. Listen to the words of Jesus...
“I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins."”
John 8:24 ESV
Unless you believe you will surely die. There is no practicing faith; we live in it every day! We don’t have the luxury of leaving our life of faith after a practice session and going back to who we were before we believed, and then coming back the next afternoon after work for some more practice time. We live by breathing or we die, and we live by faith... or we die.
Do you still think that you can practice your faith? Do you think you can chose to turn it off and on as you work at perfecting it? Think today about how you perceive your faith, and ask yourself if it is really something you are able to practice before doing it for real... is it something you would even want to step into and out of, and if you did so what would the ramification be? Stop convincing yourself that you are practicing faith... it is a life or death proposition.
Prayer:
Father, thank you for each breath I take because in them is the life you breathed into me, and thank you for the seed of faith that you planted within me for it is the essence of this life as well. Help me Holy Father to realize that there is no lukewarm in my faith, but only hot... or cold. Teach me as I walk with you Father so that I will not be spit out upon the ground. Lord, speak to me each moment of each day, so that I can hear you in my soul, and obey those things you ask of me. Increase my faith as we travel the paths of righteousness, and never let me think that I can practice at being faithful. Help me Merciful Father to breathe in and breathe out in my faith. Make my breaths easy and steady as I take in your will and exhale mine. You are my God, and in you I find my focus, my every thought, my hope, and all of my desire. Your grace is sufficient for me Father. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you the giver of life... the essence of my faith. Great is your name, and greatly to be praised!
Rich Forbes