Our Responsibility of FaithA Chapter by Not A WriterIn order to love, we must have faith.Our
Responsibility of Faith “For God so
loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should
not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world
to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is
condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of
God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people
loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For
everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light,
lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the
light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in
God.” John 3:16-21 Jesus
said of Himself, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the
Father except through me” (Jn. 14:6). He explicitly says that only He is the
way for eternal life. This claim by Jesus is rejected by many religions and
worldviews in the world either claiming that Jesus is not the Son of God, you
need something more than Jesus Christ, or He never existed. Immediately, people
go to the Bible to see if it is what it say it is. They attack it’s inerrancy,
but they never succeed. This is not an apologetics book, so I am not going to
refute or defend the claims of Scripture, but I will mention a couple of verses
from what the Bible says about itself. 2 Timothy 3:15 says, “ . . . you have
known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation
through faith in Christ Jesus.” Jesus talks to the Pharisees in John 5:39 and
says, “You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you
possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you
refuse to come to me to have life.” The Bible are the actual Words of God, they
are truth and actual truth and we can trust Him because God cannot lie (Tit.
1:2). We
are sinners. Your father, mother, grandma, and grandpa sin or have sinned. Even
the baby that have or will be born to you will sin. This curse also applies to
you because you sin also. By no means are we proud of this shame, for we have
missed the mark of God (Rom. 3:23). We have all “fallen short of the glory of
God” by not only making a mark passively, but also, making a mark actively (Ex.
20:20; Prov. 8:36; 19:2). We all have freely chosen the sinful path, loved sin
more than God, and desired to take the ‘other’ way. We proudly made a
statement, but we are utterly ashamed. Why? Because when we compare evil with
good and experience the consequence, we know that evil is not as good as good
as evil said it would be. The wrong decision is not an embarrassment to us
(though it is), but knowing that God has to judge sin, this is what embarrasses
us (Rom. 6:23). We are the enemy God is the benefactor. In this paper, you will
learn the origin of sin, sin in the lives of believers and unbelievers, and how
sin is a threat to a holy God. Although sin interests the heart of all sinful
men, God must judge sin for the wickedness it truly is. This problem all
happened in the Garden of Eden, when Adam ate of the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge of good
and evil. Because we sinned God has to judge our sin that lies within us.
However, God made promises in the Scripture: a deliverer. This deliverer came
to save us from our sin. The
Scriptures claim that Jesus was captured and betrayed by Judas and his hired men
from the Pharisees at the Garden of Gethsemane. He was captured and was shipped
to Annas than to Herod than to Pilot. All
His disciples left Him. During this time, the Pharisees falsely accused
Him and beat him up. When he was with Pilate, the Pharisees bribed the Jews to
call out to Pilot to “Crucify Him!” Pilot made a bargain to either pick Jesus
or Barabbas, a zealot. However, Barabbas was picked instead of Jesus, so Jesus
was whipped and beaten than marched out to be crucified. Jesus was led out carrying
a cross; however, he was too weak so Simeon from Cyrene carried it for him.
When Jesus arrived to Golgotha, called the place of the skull, they gambled for
his clothing. There they crucified him upon a cross and mocked him. That day he
died for the souls of men and from that crucifixion. The Old Testament is gone
and the New Testament come when he said, “It is finished!” After
Jesus died for our sins, he resurrected. We stress the importance of the death
of Christ and rightly so. We stress how much he suffered for our place, but it
does not matter as to how much we stress his death, if we do not stress his
resurrection it is of no avail.1 Corinthians 15:13-14 says, “If there is no
resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ
has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.” Jesus
death, in a matter of fact, is no thing to rejoice about. Jesus even said, “It
was a time of mourning for them.” The thing to rejoice about is his
resurrection. It is because of Jesus’ resurrection that we can rejoice that His
death conquered death itself. It is because of Jesus death that we can say,
“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” We
consider this event to be true because not only did the event happen and
because God is faithful and true but because of the historical significance of
it. 1 Corinthians 15:3-6 states, “For what I received I passed on to you as of
first importance that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the
Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that,
he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time . . . .”
Since there was witnesses, this a valid non-biblical support that states that
the Bible is true. (Book of Josephus) Jesus’
life on earth is called the Gospel. The Gospel in Greek means evangelion
or the good news. Before Jesus people would be saved by looking forward to the
Savior to come. Now we look back to Christ to get saved. Since God brought all
these situations and acts to occur, he has granted a new responsibility to us
or a new dispensation. With this dispensation comes new rules for us to follow
and that is either to accept God’s grace or to reject it. Follow our way or
follow God’s way. As John 3:18 says, “Whoever believes in him is not condemned,
but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not
believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” The
passage I just used says that believing is required to not be condemned or to
believe is to be saved. My father made a quote which still sticks in my mind,
“If I have faith than I am required to believe and if I am required to believe
than I am required to act.” This quote is so true. Our first duty in order to
perform to God is to have faith. Hebrews 11:1 gives a perfect definition as to
what faith is, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what
we do not see.” Faith relies that God is the true God who dwelled all of
eternity and acted by making us and saving us from our sins. Not only that but
it has hope that we will be with him forever and ever. Webster’s New World
Thesaurus defines faith as confidence, trust, assurance, dependence, conviction,
allegiance, and certainty. In order to be saved, one must have faith in God.
But this rises a question: faith in God concerning what? When
one has faith in God he casts himself into the arms of God for dependence. Now
this is contrary to man’s innate nature for he puts himself upon God. Man is a
natural humanist and a person who thinks himself as God. However, when a man
comes to the end of himself like the prodigal son, God turns the man from his
wicked ways and shows him how beautiful and glorious He is. When a man comes to
God, he confesses that he himself is sinful. According to what standard? God’s
standard. Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of
God.” Without God, there would be nothing to measure as to what it is morally
acceptable: good or bad. However, since we are naturally evil, we know we are
evil because we have experienced the good and have seen the good. As a result,
we see our true situation. Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” However, we do not naturally see our true
spiritual condition unless someone or something opens our eyes. You see if
everyone in the world was born in darkness since they were born and have never
seen light before. They would think that knowing nothing but black would be
normal. 1 John 2:11 says, “But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and
walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the
darkness has blinded him.” However, when
they see the light, they see it by someone’s help. Likewise, someone can only
discern what sin is or what good is by the person who reveals it. The mind does
not discern it by itself. Who gave you ability for you to discern good from
evil? Colossians 1:21-22 says, “Once you were alienated from God and were
enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled
you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight .
. . .” Although God delivers us from sin and from this evil present age (Gal.
1:4), the decision to believe God is ours, since we have a free will. Psalm
95:8 says, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did
at Meribah . . . .” The decision is ours either to put our faith in God or not
to. However, we need the Son and the Father to help us in our step to faith for
salvation (Lk. 18:27; Jn. 15:4). We have the Son and the Father’s help by not
trusting in ourselves but trusting in them. I
can hear someone saying, “But I am not that bad of a person” or “I have never
sinned” or “God is a God of love; He will not judge my sin.” But the truth of
the matter is all we are evil people who have sinned and God must judge us for
our sin. Have
you ever lied? Have you ever withheld the truth from someone just a little bit?
If so, you are a liar. That’s a sin. James 2:10 says, “For whoever keeps the
whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilt of breaking all of it.”
This does not just apply to lying, but murder, adultery, covetousness, and
more. Every word, action, or deed that does not come from love is sin. We are
all called to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength and to love
others as ourselves and the moment we stop doing that, we sin. It is not the
outward actions that are sin only, but also the inwards thoughts of a man. Jesus
said in Matthew 5:21-22 says, “You have heard that it was said to the people
long ago, ‘Do not murder,’ and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.
But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to
judgment.” When evil resides the heart, that is when we are sinning. Sin
is a big deal for God because it is a threat to his glory. He must judge sin.
Sin is so evil that even God had to forsake Jesus Christ when he bore the sin
of the world (Mat. 27:46). It is the same If Sin is not a big deal for God than
how is it you had to offer His Son for our sins? God must preserve Himself.
Even though God is a God of love; He also is a God who is Just. To let evil go
unpunished is to allow evil. Evil and good cannot be with each other as much as
darkness and light can be with each other. God is holy and separated from all
that is evil in this world. It is very sobering when one reads Isaiah 6 and see
that God is “Holy, holy, holy.” Now
it is possible for people to have “faith” in God yet not be saved. James 2:19
reads, “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that "
and shudder.” Believe here is the Greek word pisteno, which means,
commit, put in trust with, to have faith says Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance.
The only difference between the two words faith and believe is
the time span in which a person is in with their walk with God. Whereas faith
puts its confidence in someone or something, to believe is to already accept,
hold, think, or consider in something or someone. You see there will be people
who know God yet blatantly reject him. Romans 1:18 testifies, “The wrath of God
is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men
who suppress the truth by their wickedness.” The
time when somebody puts their faith in God to the time when somebody confesses
God as their Savior is the time of salvation. But the person who chooses not to confess
Jesus as their Savior skips to the believing process and remains there until he
goes back and receives the saving faith which is found only in Christ Jesus.
When somebody confesses Christ as their own personal Savior that is when they
go onto the believing process as well as the acting process. One gets saving
faith simply by this as Acts 16:31 states, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you
will be saved " you and your household.” Romans 10:9-10 states, “That if you
confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God
raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you
believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are
saved.” When one confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord and that He saved you from
your sins that is how you are saved. However, if it is just said from your
mouth out of duty or because someone forced you to it, that does not guarantee
that you are saved one bit. Saving faith must come from the heart. If it does
not come from the heart than you are not saved. Suppose there was a girl who
was driving and was going to an accident and yelled out, “Help me, God!” Her
calling out to God does not guarantee her that she indeed is a child of God. When
one believes in the Lord, he or she is saved forever. I will give Scriptural verses that prove this
point, John 6:37 says, “All that the Father gives me will come to me and
whoever comes to me I will never drive away.” When be believe in Christ, we are
actually crucified with him and baptized with him. As a result, God when he
sees us only sees Jesus Christ. It is an act that has been done in the past and
cannot be taken back. We cannot get saved again for we are being saved (Phil.
2:12). It is impossible for Jesus Christ to be crucified again and again. He
cannot die again for He died once and for all. Plus, if Jesus had to die again,
God would not be showing true agape love because agape love is
unconditional. John 3:18 says, “Whoever believes in him is not condemned . . .
. “ Romans 8:1 says, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are
in Christ Jesus.” Jesus is the good shepherd. He never lets a sheep loose from
his hand (Jn. 10:18). When
we have saving faith in God, we are in the constant process of believing in God
and acting upon what we believe. When a Christian trusts God for His salvation,
it is his duty to walk with God. He not only continually believes but he acts
upon what he reads in the Word of God or from what the Spirit of God convicts
the man. A Christian should be able to make some sort of evidence that he is a
Christian. James 2:17 says, “In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not
accompanied by action, is dead.” Our faith is useless unless we act upon it.
Luke 11:28 says, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey
it.” For instance, a father and a mother have a child. It would be a disaster
if you saw the child be a child for the rest of his life. The child should
mature and over time, be a help for the family. Likewise, when we grow up and
mature, we should help out God and others. We should be able to produce fruit
for God. If
there is no evidence of fruit in your life than you might probably not be
saved. Every Christian should be able to produce fruit and persevere till the
end. It is the attribute of every Christian. He who falls away from grace, has
probably not been saved for the Holy Spirit strives with man. Sanctifying Faith It
is impossible for anyone to love others if they will not love God. A person
grows as much as his faith. Faith measures the man. Whatsoever a man does:
prayer, reading the Word of God, fellowship with others measures his faith.
Once faith is cut through circumstances or whatnot, he is in a growth halt.
This book is not a counseling book, so I will not be able to cover every detail
what man undergoes, but what I will cover is the sovereignty of God in light of
man’s responsibility to put his faith in Him. Sanctifying
faith is not much different than saving faith. Whereas saving faith is
salvation in passed tense, I am being saved by the power of Christ. My favorite
Bible passage, Colossians 2:6-7 says, “So then, just as you received Christ
Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him,
strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with
thankfulness.” Just as I was saved by Jesus Christ, I continue to live by him
in faith. Nothing changes. The first part of sanctification is to God through
Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit. We need the Trinity’s help through our sanctification.
I may have been saved, but my call remains the same, like Paul I should say,
“But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What
is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of
knowing Christ Jesus my Lord (Phil. 3:7-8).” Knowing Christ becomes more of a
delight when I spend time with him. The same applies with God. Relationships
are not drudgery but pure and sweet. I find myself farther in sanctification
when I remind myself of Christ. Although God is the one who receives all glory,
if we only focus on God and giving Him glory as He so deserves, we will faint
along the way because we are doing it in our own strength. We need help from
Christ. Christ is the one that helps us to glorify God. When Christ dwells in
us, as was His job in the first place, we can glorify God also. John 17:1 says,
“Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.” The Son’s job is to glorify
the Father and he does this by indwelling us. Jesus said that we would do greater
works than Him since we have Him in our hearts (Jn. 14:12). We will find
ourselves loving others more when we are sanctified more. Sanctification through
the Trinity Sanctification
is the process of becoming more like God. It is like gold going under
refinement when it is going under refinement the dross rise to the surface
while the purities of the gold are seen after the dross is wiped off clean. God
is the purifier. Either you are purified either here on earth or up in the
judgment sea of God (Mal. 3:3; 1 Pet. 1:7; Job 23:10). We are all going to be
purified sooner or later. Unbelievers are purified eternally in hell’s fires
for sin can never be refined, but Christians are purified here on earth. Isaiah
48:10-11 says of Isaiah 48:10-11, “See, I have refined you, though not as
silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my
own sake, I do this. How can I let myself be defamed? I will not yield my glory
to another.” In the end, the Trinity works for our good (Rom. 8:28). During
the experience of sanctification, the Trinity works out to make us more like
God the Father. The Trinity is always there for our spiritual progress:
redemption and sanctification. Through this next section, I will explain what
parts the Trinity does in bringing us to sanctification. Firstly,
God the Father assists us through our need of sanctification in two ways. He assists us first by giving us hard trials
to overcome. We can undergo these circumstances in two ways: 1) Our strength or
2) God’s ways (Isa. 48:10-11; Js. 1:2-6). Fortunately, God does not make these
trials overwhelming but He gives us a way of escape (1 Cor. 10:13). Even when
the times are hard and it seems like nothing good is going to happen, God works
through us by showing us our need: patience, love, etc. By showing us our need, he heals us from our
sickness and makes us healthy and more into His image. God helps us in our need
of sanctification through trials by giving us grace. As you live, you will find
that the harder life is the more grace is given to you. As 2 Corinthians 12:10 says,
“For when I am weak that is when I am strong.” In order to preserver through
refinement, we need to have God’s grace through trials. We can do this by our
relationship with Jesus Christ. Secondly,
God the Son assists us through our need of sanctification. By Jesus Christ
dying for us, He not only saved us, but He also produced in us desires in
wanting to serve God and others. Jesus has given us love. 1 John 4:18 says, “We
love because He first loved us.” Love can be regarded a part of sanctification
because the only reason why people persevere through anything is love. As 1 Corinthians 13 says, “Love endures forever.”
As I said earlier, love is the end of the means in all things. By loving
others, both in good and bad times, we further our sanctification ever more.
This is so for we are not loving in our own strength, but rather in Christ’s
strength. When we love in Christ’s strength we take another step in drawing
closer to Him. Thirdly
and lastly, we may have God the Father and God the Son, but we also need the
Holy Spirit’s help. Christ is the one that bears our sins, and is the one that
gives us His love in order to love others, but it is the Holy Spirit that gives
us the power to convict us of sin and righteousness (Jn. 16:8) . It is the
Spirit that enlightens us to our true spiritual condition. The Holy Spirit is
like a still small whisper that you can sense in the back of your mind: what
you should do or what you should not do. By Him telling us what to do and what
not to do, we can take the right path and be more like God. Not only will the
Holy Spirit tell us what to do, but he will also give us guidance through His
Word. The Holy Spirit speaks to us by the Word (2 Pet. 1:21). The Holy Spirit
speaks to us through His Word every time, it is whether we wish to respond or
not. When we do respond we see the power of the Holy Scriptures in transforming
our lives (Heb. 4:12; 2 Tim. 3:16). Once
we lose sight of one of the jobs of the Trinity, we immediately lose that
aspect of sanctification. As a result, we do not gain the full aspect of
sanctification and we walk in our own strength. We usually fail either one of
two ways: 1) We either forget God or 2) We do not trust God. Seeing the Problem An
anonymous person once said, “The greatest enemy of faith is forgetfulness.” When we forget God, we are
actually having God separate from our lives and are actually having an idol in
place. Israel had the problem of
forgetfulness quite prevalent in their lives. They would go off into war and
win or see a wondrous miracle, but just a few days would pass and they would
forget God and serve others gods (Deut. 4:23). God even warns us about our
forgetfulness in 2 Kings 7:38, “And
the covenant that I have made with you ye shall not forget; neither shall ye
fear other gods.” I find on my life that I often forget God when I find Him not
so appealing. What I mean is, I start memorizing all these Bible verses and
have high standards (can be low too) but after a while I do not enjoy them as I
once did. Slowly, I forget God by losing my zeal that I once had for Him. When
we forget the greatness of God that is when problems start occurring (Ps. 78:7;
106:13; 103:2; 106:7; Heb. 12:5; Js. 1:25; Ps. 119:53; Ps. 119:176; Jdg. 8:34;
Ps. 78:42). Complacency will lead to forgetfulness. When we are comfortable and
have no problems that is when we are in the most danger because we rely on
ourselves than on God because we believe that we have it all together (Deut. 8:12-14; Hosea 13:6).
The only way to battle against the enemy of forgetfulness is to strive for God.
How do we have zeal for God when sin weighs us down? We can have zeal by coming
back to the cross and remembering that Christ died for our forgetfulness and
gave us zeal for God the Father. Forgetfulness is a short topic to
talk about, but trust the Lord is quite extensive. Volumes of books have been
written about trusting God or the sovereignty of God. Ultimately, if you have a
problem in trusting God, you have a problem with the sovereignty of God. If you
accept God’s sovereignty, you understand
life. If you want to read more about the sovereignty of God, I suggest you turn
to chapter five, but for now, I will discuss our duty in trusting God. We are told from Scripture that God
does not lie (Rom. 3:4). If He cannot lie, that presumes that God is truth (Jn.
4:24). Knowing that God is truthful and
believing it is very important. We often know that God is truthful but actually
believing it comes hard for us to grasp. I say this for we cling to our way
more onto God because God’s ways are painful and unpleasant. Because of this,
we view God almost as evil and against us. We want no part of Him. As a result,
we actually do not trust God, but trust ourselves. I will now make a list as to
why we have a hard time in trusting God. First, we do not trust God because
we do not see that God loves us. We as humans cannot grasp the way God loves.
It is mysterious in the times we are experiencing evil. When you think about
it, God’s love was displayed in sacrificing His Son (Jn. 3:16). But when we think about it, God’s love was
displayed to us by sending His Son to die for us. Does this mean that God did
not love His Son? No, because He called Him, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I
am well pleased.” One day I was working at a ski resort and I was managing the
tubing hill and making sure that everything was running and going properly as
it was supposed to. Well, I was wearing a hoodie and the hook that was running
the pulley system caught onto my hoodie and dragged me for some fifty feet. I
was devastated and honestly, was scrambling to my feet and hands so I could
breathe and not get chocked to death. After the incident, I immediately viewed
myself as a replaceable by God because I thought of myself of no value to God.
What happened was, I doubted God’s true love for me because I focused more on
how I felt at the time. God only promises to do good things to me (Rom. 8:28). He also wants me to prosper. Jeremiah 29:11
says, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to
prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” God
loves us unconditionally, because even in the face of our sin, He still
supplies breath to us and keeps us alive. Every second that we live is an act
of God’s love toward us. By looking at what I had and have right now all I can
do and should do is praise God like Job did in Job 1:21, “The Lord has given
and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” Second, we do not see trust God
because we do not see that God is inherently good, for we see Him as evil. We
do not trust God usually because we are hurt. When we are hurt, we equate hurt
with evil. As a result, we see God as evil. If you have been with logic, you
will know that the conclusion is only as strong as the premise. However, since
we established that God is truth, we already see that the premise is false. God
is good. I am not a man who can help everyone with their hurt, but one thing I
would say to everyone is this: give it all to God. No one can escape that God
is behind it all. God is the one being blamed for the evil, but we are only
looking through the situation through our human lens. I can hear someone
saying, “Well, how on earth do you suppose that this can be a good situation?” To
this I cannot say anything because I am not God. But the song Day by Day can
teach us a valuable lesson wherever you are at in life, Now one might say, “If God really
loved you, He would be good to you.” The truth is, God does love you. We may
not see it at first or we may not see it at all during this life time, but God
only does in what He does to draw us closer to Him. He made Adam to have
fellowship with Him; He does the same thing to us. Every action God does is a
call to us to draw nigh to Him. As Romans 3:11 states, “No one seeks after God.”
Everything that God does is for Him to show us what is the greatest good to
live for: Him. Everything works out for good. Joseph found this out after His
trial. He spoke to his brothers as said, “As for you, you meant it for evil,
but God meant it for good.” If you are a Christian, you have prayed at least
once to be made in the image of Christ. Well, God is doing just that through
trials. We can trust God is good by trusting that He is using the trials for
our greater good. This should give us joy because we know that God is
developing our faith through this circumstance (Js. 1:2-5). Suffering is one of
the aspects that God uses us to mold us into His image. That is not a bad
thing. God never gives us an answer to
the circumstances we go through, Job never received an answer from God as to the
question why. The only answer he received from God was, “Will you
contend with the Almighty?” (Job. 40:2) When we believe that God is good, we
know that everything is working out for good. Habakkuk learned this even when
his people were going to be slaughtered by the Babylonian army, “Though the fig
tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop
fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and
no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in
God my Savior.” In the end, we should be like Job and be willing to take both
the good times and the bad times. Third, we do not trust God because we
see God as selfish. When bad times happen to us, we might see God as a tyrannical
ruler who only cares about Himself. We may also see Him as not loving and evil.
Even when they do see Him as loving and good, they may still think that God is
only in it for Himself. But shouldn’t
He? I mean, after all, He is God, right? A God can do whatever He wishes to do
because He is the Supreme Being. It is funny how we call out on God and tell
Him what not to do or what to do when we cannot predict what will happen ten
seconds from now. God must look to Himself as the Highest Being because He is
the greatest good. Even when He created man, He could be considered as selfish
but in reality it was for our good because we saw the goodness of God. God is
the highest good. A demonstration of this can be seen in God giving Abraham a
vow that He would fulfill His promise to Him by swearing upon Himself. There
was no one else greater than Him. Fourthly, we do not trust God
because we do not believe that God wants to use us. This sounds strange, but
sometimes we do not trust God because we do not think we are good enough. We
feel inadequate because we think how or why would God use me? We do not measure
up to our own expectations or goals and so we do not progress in our
sanctification be cause we do not trust God that He does want to use us. The
truth is God wants to use everyone. Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are God’s
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in
advance for us to do.” Everyone has a talent and God has given each one of us
something to edify one another. Whether we have a big gift or a small gift, the
church cannot survive without it. This is no competition with others to see who
has the greater gift, but rather how we can serve one another in love and how
we can be faithful to the God who granted to us these gifts. If God was not
planning to use us than we would not be here, but we are here so God is going
to use us. Fifthly and lastly, we do not trust
God because simply do not believe in Him. We may know all our problems and
lacks of faith, but knowing our problems is not good enough. We must act
upon it. We have to delight in God more
than ourselves. If we cannot we simply do not trust God because we trust in
ourselves and love ourselves more than Him. Proverbs 3:5-7 says, “Trust in the
Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your
ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in
your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil.” At times, we simply have to have
faith and as the Nike logo says, “Just do it.” Sanctification requires a constant walk with
God. We are not going on that walk with Him if we are not trusting Him. Trust
is the biggest keys in a relationship and it all starts with having faith in
God. As Hebrews says, “Without faith, it is impossible to please the Lord.”We
may fail and fall and it may be hard to trust the Lord, but we can do it by
trusting in the Lord’s strength. Conclusion It
does not matter where you are in life. You need faith to be a successful
Christian. Although love defines the man, without faith it will all go in vain.
This chapter can teach you a lot if you make it teach it a lot. Can you do
better to trust God? Are you really giving God your whole life? If you truly
had faith in God, would you be as radical in Jesus? Faith makes itself known by
crazy stuff done and it all comes down to loving Christ more than
this world. When we love God we will find the world passing away. So as you
read this book, I challenge you that you will go on this adventure with me to
live a radical Christian life that is centered on Christ. © 2011 Not A WriterAuthor's Note
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1 Review Added on June 16, 2011 Last Updated on June 16, 2011 AuthorNot A WriterKyoto, MI, JapanAboutJapanese writer Into all things anime 日本万歳. どんなに頑張っても私を見つける.. more..Writing
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