Use it or lose it?

 

Someone I know often says that when God speaks anything to her, she needs to have a sign or a confirmation of it. For instance, if she reads that God will give peace to her children (Isaiah 54:13) then she needs to see her children at peace to fully believe it. This answer to prayer becomes her evidence for faith. The problem with this is the Bible’s description of faith:

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1)

The examples given are about creation and about the faith of OT saints:

By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. 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 11:3–7)

Note in each example God is pleased with the faith of His people which came before His rewards for faith. There is no mention of them believing because they were rewarded. Faith is about trusting what God says, even if we cannot see the answer. Our faith is in God’s promises, even before their fulfillment.

There is a divine order concerning this. Today’s reading puts it this way: first, get your facts; second, put faith in those facts; and finally, acknowledge the feelings that come as a result of believing the facts. This order is always followed in earthly matters; but curiously enough in religious matters a great many people reverse this order. They put feelings first, then faith in those feelings, and come to the facts last, looking on them as the result of their feelings.

Last night was my example. I ‘felt’ that a certain team would win the game we watched and even thought that my strong feeling was from God. However, they lost. My ‘faith’ was not based on facts but feelings. A strong ‘I want’ can affect how I read the Bible too, a far more serious error. If I want God to use me in a particular way because I have a strong desire for that thing to happen does not mean God will do it. I need to pay attention to His will and not base my beliefs on my desires.

Today’s reading describe those who say they could easily believe it if only they have the witness in themselves, as the Bible says we are to have. But when is a person to have that inner witness—before he believes, or after?

Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. (1 John 5:10)

The Bible puts the believing first. Is not this because what God says comes first and is our priority and our fact? His words are true, and they come to us as knowledge, not as a feeling that requires proof by giving us some sort of result that is affirmed by a full or partial answer.

As for that, my ‘feelings’ can be based on something false. Just because my children are at peace does not mean that God has been teaching them. They could be at a time in life when everything is going their way. My hope must be in God to fulfill that promise, not in what I can see!

PRAY: Jesus, enable me to always be alert to the idol of feelings or the need to ‘see’ answers before I will trust what You say to me. You are faithful and true to Your word. Everything else is iffy and even fickle. Besides, You also say, “Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it” (Hebrews 2:1) not “pay closer attention to how you feel.”

He is my Father

Fiction in books or movies sometimes tells of a person who discovers they are not the natural child of their parents but were adopted. In most of these stories, that news is not welcome or at least very shocking. My imagination takes me there at times. Was I adopted? Did my parents pick me from a list of available infants? If that were true, how would I react? Would I be glad that I had been selected? Or dismayed that no one told me?

In the spiritual realm, the idea of adoption is good news. Scripture tells me that I have been taken from a life of bondage to sin and put into the household and family of God.

For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” (Romans 8:15)

The question is: do I know it? Do I really understand the implications of being an adopted child of God? Or does that old spirit of bondage still rule my innermost attitudes? The change that comes to a person when they discover that they are adopted is often negative, at least at first. However, for a sinful person who cannot break free from the habits of sin and discovers that a spiritual adoption has taken place — this should be the greatest news, a news that brings great comfort and joy to the heart.

So the question is what idea rules? As today’s devotional says, no amount of wrestling or agonizing, no prayers and no effort, can bring comfort while the “spirit of adoption” is missing. Yet this is something to realize rather than receive. It is that discovery that God is my Father and I am His child. Whatever focus I have will be reflected in how I think about my relationship with Him. The emphasis for these past few days is that God is my Father beyond any other thought about Him. Yes, He is King, Judge, Lawgiver, Provider, and a host of other things, but that Father-child relationship puts all other notions about Him into perspective.

The great need for every soul is this supreme discovery. Read what Christ says about the Father and how the NT repeats that truth and believe it. How sad for anyone who will not:

Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. (John 3:11)

The implication of not believing is serious business concerning the authority of Christ:

Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. (1 John 5:10)

By not believing, I would be saying God is a liar. If that is so, where then is truth? Society says whatever each person believes is true is “true for them” causing all sorts of contradictions in theology, and life itself. A careful reading of today’s verses also shows that this rejection of God’s truth means the rule of a spirit of slavery (to sin and selfishness) and the rule of fear which is characteristic of that bondage.

PRAY: Our Father, my Father, how blessed to know that You adopted me and are setting me free from bondage and fear. I can trust You with all my heart for You are worthy and true. Thank You for the freedom that being adopted has given me.