Now apart from faith it is impossible to be well pleasing, for he who is coming to God must believe that He is, and is becoming a rewarder of those who are seeking Him out.
Hebrews 11: 6, Concordant New Testament
I listened to a local radio preacher speak to the subject of faith the other day. Needless to say, I came away a bit confused as to what he was asking from me. For his main point was not the quality of our belief, but the overall quantity. That is, the more we come to the Lord in His name with our concerns, the more God is apt to listen. Was this what the apostle Paul was referring to in Ephesians 2:8-9? Is our salvation simply due to our perseverance in approaching God? The more we pray the better our own chances? Thankfully, God chose another way. Gods intent was that our salvation would be a free offering by Him unto His children. It is, therefore, our opportunity to accept or reject His offer. No amount of continual prayer will ever change this process. It is this knowing of the truth that also is a significant part of our own faith. We believe in God because we know that He is who He claims to be. We trust in believe in Christ Jesus because we believe that He is who He claims to be. We believe that Christ was born of Mary. That He was crucified upon the cross, and that He rose three days after that. This we believe. We do not believe in Jesus simply because we are reminded of His life and promises. We believe because we choose to accept Him. One could say that this exemplifies the quality of our faith. That it is part of our core beliefs. Honestly, growing up I cannot recall ever not believing in the Lord. It was something which was shown to me from an early age. Of course, at that young age I had yet to reach that moment where, if I could, I would question my beliefs in the Lord. Thankfully, that moment never came for me. The quality of my faith has remained throughout the years.
Now faith is an assumption of what is being expected, a conviction concerning matters which are not being observed.
Hebrews 11: 1, Concordant New Testament
Let me pose this question, would you ever believe in one who you never knew? Let's just say for conversations sake that you are someone seeking answers in life. What is it that would draw you to trust in God? What is it that would draw you to even approach Him? Obviously, if you were to do so without knowing Him you would have to have at least an expectation of what they were getting into right? We do. Even those who have never known the Lord have an expectation of how it is He works. Why is that? Paul describes this as our conviction of things which we know {Hebrews 11:1}. There are situations in life where we just simply know how it is they are going to play out. Believe it or not, this is part of our faith. I believe in God because I KNOW that He is. Would you toss a rock over a cliff and expect that it wouldn't fall? Would you stand under a broken tree branch without the conviction that it could break off and fall at some point? We know the answers to these questions simply because we know and trust the physics of gravity upon our world. We know and understand that when we enter church on a Sunday morning, that when we sit in the pew (not the ones up front, those are reserved for the pastoral profession), we can trust that we will not fall to the floor. There are simply things in life where we have an expectation, a conviction if you will, of how they work. So it is with God. We know and understand that He is who He claims to be. He is the I AM. We know and understand that He will do what He promises to do. This is the demonstration of our faith in Him.
For all that is begotten of God is conquering the world. And this is the conquest that conquers the world: our faith.
1 John 5: 4, Concordant New Testament
~Scott~
No comments:
Post a Comment