FAITH…are we losing it? You know, the real kind that we saw in the saints of the past. Think back…to Noah, Abraham, Moses, Daniel, Joshua, Paul–George Mueller, George Whitfield…so many more.
Think back to their lives. They actually lived radically! People called them names–bad ones–said they were crazy. But their eyes were so held on God that when He said “do it”, nothing could reason them out of it.
Obedient sometimes looks like crazy. “Oh but I’m not going to be guilty of looking crazy, radical–that will hinder the gospel…let’s RELATE.”
Is such a stance found anywhere in Scripture? Is it not the opposite we see before us every time we behold a powerful man or woman of God?
Oswald Chambers said it so well–as my husband read this to us around the breakfast table, my eyes teared up. We have been persecuted for some things–I hope all of you have, because I can’t think of a follower of Christ from history who was not. And yet, when I look at my own faith, it is so small. I have really never been asked to do something that truly tested it!
May your faith be reinforced.
“Lord, I will follow You, but . . .” Luke 9:61
Suppose God tells you to do something that is an enormous test of your common sense, totally going against it. What will you do? Will you hold back? If you get into the habit of doing something physically, you will do it every time you are tested until you break the habit through sheer determination. And the same is true spiritually. Again and again you will come right up to what Jesus wants, but every time you will turn back at the true point of testing, until you are determined to abandon yourself to God in total surrender.
Yet we tend to say, “Yes, but— suppose I do obey God in this matter, what about . . . ?” Or we say, “Yes, I will obey God if what He asks of me doesn’t go against my common sense, but don’t ask me to take a step in the dark.”
Jesus Christ demands the same unrestrained, adventurous spirit in those who have placed their trust in Him that the natural man exhibits. If a person is ever going to do anything worthwhile, there will be times when he must risk everything by his leap in the dark.
In the spiritual realm, Jesus Christ demands that you risk everything you hold on to or believe through common sense, and leap by faith into what He says.
Once you obey, you will immediately find that what He says is as solidly consistent as common sense.
By the test of common sense, Jesus Christ’s statements may seem mad, but when you test them by the trial of faith, your findings will fill your spirit with the awesome fact that they are the very words of God.
Trust completely in God, and when He brings you to a new opportunity of adventure, offering it to you, see that you take it.
We act like pagans in a crisis— only one out of an entire crowd is daring enough to invest his faith in the character of God.
7 comments
Wow, I am convicted after reading this post. Black and white tends to turn to gray when you are in the middle of a crisis. May we trust Him more!
Yes! I have been realising this the last few weeks or so… As a christian people there is very little faith. No wonder the world doesn’t want what we have – we are no different in too many areas! our faith is in everything the world has faith in – not in Christ!!
I am on a journey and I now dare to be different. What God wants comes first and what the world wants of me is now irrelevant.
I think most Christians today are struggling with having more faith in God and His truth. It’s so much easier to have faith in “man-made” things because we can see them and get “instant gratification.” However, this isn’t how God works at all. As long as we are upon this earth, I think we as Christians will always need to keep growing and struggling in the area of absolute faith in God.
I think sometimes we can substitute the word trust for faith. This might open our eyes to where our trust lies. “Do you have the faith to do what God asks of you?” or “Do you have the trust do what God asks of you?” I fall short of the trust/faith many times every day.
We also read this by Oswald Chambers the other day (My Upmost for His Highest?). My problem comes in with not what I am asked to do, but is it GOD asking me to do it or my own desires. I already know God flies in the face of common sense, so I know to expect something that may not be common sense. But then I wonder, is it GOD asking, or do I want to do this already and I’m looking for a reason to?
For example, I used to babysit several kids a week (all day) for extra money. You know the “ideal” job for a mom who wants to stay home wit her own kids and make money. Well as anyone can guess, I was worn out and exhausted from having 5-7 kids in my house age 4 and under (only 2 were mine). My housework was not getting done, my children weren’t getting the personal attention that I wanted to give them, and my husband came home from work not to a peaceful home, but to someone else’s whinny, crabby kids. I wanted to quit. I hated it, so did my hubby. But common sense told us to keep it up. It was extra money that we really needed, I was home with my own kids like I wanted to, the problem was I was too lazy to get it all done, or didn’t have enough patience, right?
Then I heard God say, quit. Your family needs you, don’t worry about the money. Ok, I said! This is exactly what I was hoping God would say. I wanted to be done. Then the doubt set in. Did God really say that, or did I only hear that because I wanted to, even though common sense says, keep babysitting! I struggled for a YEAR trying to decide if it was really God’s will, not just my own. (I thought that God’s will couldn’t possibly be the same as mine, I mean, HE always wants us to do things we don’t want to do right?)
To make a long story short, I finally quit! I love home life now (so does hubby)! God has provided all we need without the extra money, and I now know it was HIS will. It’s not just the asking of hard things, but questioning whether the asker was really God.
Rachel,
You’re so right…it can be very difficult to discern God’s voice!
Whenever I am not sure if it is God telling me or if it is my own desire, I will ask God to confirm whatever it is through my husband (a source I can trust). He did it when I felt the call to homeschool and has done it again with something I am hoping to share soon. God will make His calling clear if you ask for it.