I Believe God!
“Therefore take heart, men, for I believe God that it will be just as it was told me (Act 27:25 NKJV).”
When people today tell me that they have faith, I would like to ask them three questions:
1. Whom do you have faith in?
2. What promise has He/She made that you have faith in?
3. Do you act like you have faith in those promises?
The Who
With regard to the first question, all faith has to have an object, that is, faith has to be in someone or something. It is best if it is in someone that is trustworthy. People who go to Alcoholics Anonymous have faith in a higher power, but for many that higher power is a tree or some other part of nature. Interesting enough, that kind of faith has been helpful to many people. I have wondered just what higher power is helping them when that higher power is not the Creator God of the Bible as revealed in the Lord Jesus.
If our faith is going to be living and real and vibrant, that faith must be in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord says, “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins (John 8:24 NKJV).” I am He is a title of Jehovah in the Old Testament. He is the Ever Existing One. The I AM. The Lord is saying that faith in Him is faith in the Old Testament God who delivered the Israelites from the bondage of Egypt. The Bible is an unfolding story of the Lord Jesus. Jehovah or the I AM is the creator, then the redeemer, then the baby in Behlehem’s manger, then the man who proved Himself to the Son of God by many undeniable proofs. The I AM died on a cross, was raised from the dead on the third day, and He is coming again. That is the one Paul believed when he said that it will be just as it was told me.
The What
There are many areas in the life of a Christian where they say that they have faith when in fact they have no promise in which to put their faith. Often people say, “I have faith that God will heal me.” It is said as though the intensity of their faith is more important than the promise that they have their confidence or faith in. However, I know many people who had faith that God would heal them who died. Now I suppose, if they were saved, that they were healed the moment that they died. But that was not the outcome that seemed to be in view when the person said that they had faith that God would heal them. How much better it is to have faith in a specific promise that God has made than in a promise that was not written either to us or for us. There are many promises made to Christians and those with great faith have been able to take God at His word with regard to promises that might be hard to believe. Sometimes we take old testament promises that were made specifically to a particular person and apply it to ourselves. When the promise doesn’t come true we are disappointed in God. We need to make sure that the promises we believe are written to us and for us. For example, I believe that when the Bible says that God commends His love to us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us, that that promise includes me. When the Lord says, to comfort one another with the promise that the Lord is going to return, that promise includes me.
All Have Not Faith
Paul wanted those in Thessalonica to pray for him “that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men; for not all have faith (2 Thessalonians 3:2 NKJV).” I may be wrong but I think these people were presenting themselves as people who had faith. Again Paul says,”Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates (people who fail the test) (2Co 13:5 KJV)?” Again Paul warns, “But what I do, I will also continue to do, that I may cut off the opportunity from those who desire an opportunity to be regarded just as we are in the things of which they boast. For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works (2Co 11:11-:15 NKJV).”
As I understand the Bible, we are to take people at face value when they say they have faith in the Lord Jesus until their works (and often their words) betray them. James says, “But someone will say, ‘You have faith, and I have works.’ Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works (James 2:18 NKJV).”
One wise person has asked this question, “If you were being tried in a court of law for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?”
In My Opinion
Much that goes for Christianity today does not speak well of Christ. Christians seem to be more concerned with how others behave than they are about how they behave. This is not new for Christendom but it should not be true for Biblical Christians. I realize we all could stand some improvement in how we represent the Lord, but if we do believe that there is a heaven to gain and a hell to shun, and that Christ died to save us from that hell, then we need to act like we really believe in the Lord. Let us put our faith in the promises of the Lord and let us act and talk like we believe God, that it will be just as He has told us.
Bruce Collins
Meditation for the week of September 19, 2021