Faith is about who I trust not how I think or feel…

 

A friend struggles with praying for a prodigal son. She trusts God when she can see results, but as soon as the son shows no interest, she panics that God is not listening to her prayers. This is the dilemma of a faith that relies on sight rather than on the promises of God. If that ‘faith’ was what God values, then a blind person could never trust God.

Today’s reading makes this statement that claims there are no different kinds of faith:

“Men talk about a feeling faith, a living faith, a saving faith, an intellectual faith, a historical faith, and a dead faith. But it is all a waste of words; for either we trust or we do not trust. If we trust, we have faith; and if we do not trust, we do not have faith; and that is all there is to it.”

The person who wrote this left out an important point: the object of faith. I’ve heard people say they ‘feel' God will answer, or it ‘makes sense’ that God will do it, and so on, or they rely on their own goodness to get into heaven, but my faith needs to trust in something more reliable than my feelings or my reasoning or my own goodness. God even says that all my righteousness is like filthy rags. The object of faith is always the Lord and what He says. Anything else is empty faith. Trust might be there, even a sincere trust, but the object of trust is faulty.

To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him? An idol! A craftsman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts for it silver chains. He who is too impoverished for an offering chooses wood that will not rot; he seeks out a skillful craftsman to set up an idol that will not move. (Isaiah 40:18–20)

How can any created and inanimate object be worthy of worship? How can even the most costly likeness of anything give comfort in sorrow or even hear my prayers?

As for feelings, they are unreliable too. I had a bad dream last night and woke up filled with despair. Not one thing changed in my life but the dream was excessively negative. I even wanted to die. But how can a dream change what God says? For example:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. (Ephesians 1:3–10)

Walking by sight falls short as well. Did God love me more today than yesterday because someone gave me an unexpected gift today? The Bible says that God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8) His love is expressed in blessings, but in their absence, I can still know He loves me:

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:37–39)

If I don’t feel loved, if I don’t see loving actions, if my friends turn away, if no one calls, does that mean God stopped loving me? Faith is Him and His Word, not in the up/down events of life or in emotions or observations — only in what He shows me about Himself.

PRAY: Jesus, You are the object of my faith. You promise to save me, keep me, take me to be with You. You keep your promises. No matter what is going on or not happening, You are totally reliable and I can trust You with all my heart. Thank You for being who You are!

God speaks our love language . . .

 

1 John 4:16 says “God is LOVE” and this statement could take years to describe what it means. We use “love” for almost all our personal preferences, totally inadequate to compare with God’s love.

In the OT, the phrase most often used is “steadfast love” putting an emphasis on “kindness, love, loyalty, mercy” of the relationship between God and people as well as between people, but used in the first instance three times as often as the second. “Steadfast” is not a separate word but uses to distinguish this love from another word about love as personal preferences. This means that the ancient people of God would use two different words to say “I love pizza” and “God loves me.”

God’s love I a loyal love, an unfailing kind of love, kindness, and goodness; a love that is related to faithfulness to His covenant. Our love fluctuates and changes but His does not. His wrath is short in contrast to his love:

Isaiah 54:7–8. For a brief moment I deserted you, but with great compassion I will gather you. In overflowing anger for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you,” says the Lord, your Redeemer.

The NT word for God’s love is well known: agapaō. What I didn’t know is this was once a colorless word used as a synonym for all kinds of love. For some reason, the biblical writers picked it to describe the love of God, a love that starts with Him and a love that the Bible describes as specific and incredibly special.

1 John 4:9–10. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

This love is unlike the word we often use for so many things. It is about consistency, about putting the object of love above everything else. It is so large and so wonderful that when we know this love from God it overflows from us and through us to others, even our enemies.

Matthew 5:44–45. But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

This love is described in 1 Corinthians 13:4–13.

“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends . . . . So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

This love is also given to us through the Holy Spirit, listed first as the fruit of being filled with Him. I cannot love like that as a mere human but only when I am relying on Him to pour it into my heart. When He does that, His people lose our self-focus and our hearts are turned to caring for others and glorifying the Lord.

This love is without end and without barriers. Romans 8:37–39 says:

“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. Thinking about the love of God can put me on my face before Him. I am nothing and do nothing to merit it. It also sets me free from concern about myself, my well-being, my need for anything including what others might think of me, God loves me; that is enough!

 

He goes before me

When we were children, we played “follow the leader” — a game that few play these days. People complain that there are few leaders worth following, but human nature tends to resist words like yield, submission and accountability. We prefer to go our own way.

After the trials of the past couple of weeks, I’m appreciating these words about following my leader more than I used to. This bout of feeling helpless, without strength or direction, gives me a strong desire to take the hand of God and go where He wants me to go.

Today, Spurgeon’s devotional is about the leadership of Christ, not so much that He is capable of leading (which He is), but that no matter what I experience, He has been there and has conquered all threats. He truly paves the way.

He who opens the breach goes up before them; they break through and pass the gate, going out by it. Their king passes on before them, the LORD at their head. (Micah 2:13)

Spurgeon uses this verse as inspiration to say that because Jesus has gone before us, things are not the same as they would have been had He never passed that way. He has conquered every enemy and obstruction that rose before Him.

For that reason, I’ve no reason to be fainthearted. He has traveled the same road and dealt with all that threatens me, opening a safe passage. As Spurgeon says, I’ve no need to fear the power of sin for Jesus has nailed it to His cross. I have no need to fear death for He died and rose again. He gives me the same life, His life, that conquered the grave and rose to live forever. I need not fear Satan, for his destiny is certain and he also has been defeated.

Spurgeon uses poetic words to say that whatever foes may be before any Christian, they are all overcome. “There are lions, but their teeth are broken; there are serpents, but their fangs are extracted; there are rivers, but they are bridged or fordable; there are flames, but we wear that matchless garment which renders us invulnerable to fire. The sword that has been forged against us is already blunted; the instruments of war which the enemy is preparing have already lost their point.”

Christ has taken away all the power that anything can have or use to hurt me. I can safely move ahead, even joyously go along my journey because all my enemies are conquered beforehand and my Savior is leading me forward.

 “Proclaim aloud the Savior’s fame,
Who bears the Breaker’s wond’rous name;
Sweet name; and it becomes him well,
Who breaks down earth, sin, death, and hell.”

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Father, I thank You for the power of Jesus Christ who goes before me. Nothing can defeat Him.

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:37–39)

I also thank You for the total reliability of Your love, for nothing can separate me from it either.