Without faith it is impossible to please
God. Hebrews 11:6
The way we come to know God is
through the exercise of faith. The way
we develop our spiritual strength and knowledge of God is the same. The way we began is the way we continue.
For some, after receiving Christ by
grace through faith, they begin the futile practice of trying to please God and
grow through religion. God is not
pleased with religion in place of faith.
As the verse above says, God wants to see our faith, not just
religion. You can do the right thing and
still not please God because you’re not doing it in faith…you are in control
and not God.
Paul tells the Corinthians they
should not be afraid to test their salvation faith. Test
yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not
recognize this about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you--unless indeed you
fail the test? 2 Corinthians 13:5
However, when we test ourselves, we
tend to compare ourselves to others. What good does it do to test against a
false standard – the standard of religion?
A danger is that I compare myself against that standard and I come out
feeling o.k. I feel good about myself in
comparison to others. It is the test of
the Pharisee, “Thank you God that I am
not like that other man.”
The real test of faith comes
separate from religious duty, service or actions.
A faith test occurs when our
concept of God and the reality of our lives conflict and we can’t understand
why something isn’t happening. If we had
our way, our faith would never be tested…but God would never have the chance to
prove that faith worked. Our
declarations of faith would ring hollow. We would simply be echoing empty religious
clichés learned in church and Sunday School.
No skeptic is ever convinced or
won over by that kind of faith.
In Luke
17:5 the apostles said to
Jesus, "Lord increase our faith." How do we do that? Here’s the secret: God builds
our faith by testing it.
·
Faith is like a muscle; when it’s stretched and
it’s pulled then it develops. Our faith develops as it is tested. We don't develop our faith just sitting on our
blessed assurance in church!
·
Job says the same thing speaking from experience
in Job 7:17-18 "What is man that You make so much of
him and that You give him so much attention and that You examine him every
morning and test him every moment."
So, here is an eye-opener…God tests
us every moment of our lives! The way we
live our lives is under His watchful eye.
Why? Job says it is because we
are so important to Him
The testing of our faith is more
about who God is than who we are.
God’s desire is that we know Him
and experience His goodness in our lives.
The positive end of a test of faith may not be a change in circumstance,
but a greater knowledge of God and His love and power in our lives.
Scripture to Claim:
And Jesus answered saying to them,
"Have faith in God. "Truly I say to you, whoever says to this
mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart,
but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him.
"Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe
that you have received them, and they will be granted you. March 11:22-24
