Jude 1:3 ( NKJV )
Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.
We have been involved in a long study of the Children of Israel and their failure to enter the promised land. A whole generation did not partake of what God was trying to give them because they did not mix the promise of God with faith. We need to be certain that we are not like that generation. We need to enter in to what God has for us because it is not just for us personally. God has a plan for the earth and we are a critical part of that plan. We are the modern day body of Christ. Just as he could not accomplish our salvation without a physical body in Israel at that time, He needs a functioning body in the world today to accomplish his purpose in our time.
We have looked at two verses in particular. Hebrews 11:6 which says we must begin by acknowledging that God really does exist. This is a statement that is almost ludicrous to think, but it is pivotal. You see I am not talking about a general acknowledgement of the existence of a “higher power” but an acceptance that God exists in my life today. That He is involved and active. If I really believe that, it changes everything.
Second we looked at Luke 18:1-8 which asks the question, “will the son of man really find faith when he comes?” I don’t believe this just means when Jesus comes again, but when He comes to me in my circumstance. Will He find genuine faith or just a mental facsimile. Will I, like the woman in these verses, be consistent and persistent until I see the promise come to pass. The Father is not like the unjust judge. He is willing to help us, but He moves by faith. We need to have faith actively working if we are going to receive from God.
What, then, is this faith we are fighting for? Faith in general is the persuasion of the mind that a certain statement is true. Its primary idea is trust (Easton’s Bible Dictionary.) There is a natural component even to faith in God. Paul made a statement in Roman’s 8:38-39.
Romans 8:38-39 ( NKJV )
For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Paul was persuaded. Something convinced him in his mind that nothing could separate him from God’s love. Outward evidence could not change his persuasion. There is a whole list of things in verses 35 and 36 that could have persuaded him that God did not love him, but none of them could turn him from what he believed to be true. How could Paul look at the evidence of his own life and not change what he believed? How could he endure nakedness, rejection, shipwreck, hunger and much more without becoming convinced that God did not love him? He did not change because his mind was persuaded not from the outside in but from the inside out.
Paul had experienced something in his heart that became the filter through which every natural experience was percieved. He had experienced the love of God. He was a murderer of the Christians. He was, in his own words, the chief of sinners. The worst of the worst, but God forgave him. What is a little shipwreck compared to that? He was persuaded that if God loved him enough to forgive him, He loved him enough to take care of him.
That is where faith must begin. It is the foundation upon which it must rest. God loved you enough to forgive you. He loved you enough to touch your life. Nothing can change that. You may not have been a chief sinner like Paul, but you were a sinner. You were bound for hell. He came and rescued you. That must become your “glasses” through which you see life. When we remember that, faith becomes a less mysterious and complicated thing.
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