My wife, Carol, is pregnant. She is due in just a few weeks with our first girl. As you can imagine, she is feeling very…heavy… and emotional (joyful anticipation and tearful weariness).
However, in the last month, I have had two very significant conferences to attend along with several faith debate radio recordings. Simply put, I have been very busy.
As a result, Carol has not had me near when she needed me near. This is a confessional of sorts. I only have a few weeks between now and the delivery to put my priorities in the right place and be there for her.
I want to talk about faith for a minute. Like my priorities with my pregnant wife, it is important that we put faith in its proper place. Since unborn babies are happy future anticipations I thought they would be a good introduction to faith.
Let’s start by limiting faith’s importance.
Faith is Not the Goal
Faith is NOT the end goal of our relationship with the Lord. Faith is the means NOT the end. We are told in 1 Cor. 13 that “these three remain, faith, hope and love; but the greatest of these is love.” Faith will never outshine or be more important than love. In 2 Peter 1:5, Peter describes to us the precious promises at the root of our faith by which we participate in God’s divine nature. Then he tells us to add to our faith a whole list of things, at the end of which is Love.
The goal of our faith is God’s love. Proverbs 19:22 says, “What a man desires is unfailing love, better to be poor than a liar.” The greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and the second to love your neighbor as yourself.
So, faith is NOT what it is all about.
Faith is Vital
However, now we should magnify faith’s importance…
…without faith it is impossible to please God!
Which can be a bit confusing.
Or not. We need faith. Our goal, our desire is unfailing love. We have found unfailing love in Jesus Christ. We have the fullness of that love in our hearts right now. However, we will have even more of that fullness when Christ returns and takes us to be with Him forever. Whatever fullness we have right now, we have MORE coming. Faith keeps us focused on what is yet to come.
Furthermore, much of the world is not aware of God’s love. Many of them continue to be deceived and stuck in sin. Again, faith keeps us focused on future conversions to Christ.
Faith is the evidence of things hoped for and the essence of things not seen. If we are hoping for MORE of God’s love then we must live by faith. All the way up until the very end of things, when God’s love is fully ours, and fully the world’s, for eternity, we will HAVE to HAVE faith.
Think about it, we need faith because God has called us to do things that seem to make no sense from a worldly perspective. Preaching the gospel to people who, at least on the surface, seem to mock and reject the gospel. We need faith if we are to love our enemies, pray for the sick and hurting, care for the outcast. All of these require faith.
So we need faith, but it’s not the goal.
The Dilemma of Faith
However, there is another major problem with faith. It has to do with how badly we need faith.
Faith is needed precisely because everything that we want can only be attained by faith. The Promised Land, where God’s promises in our lives are fulfilled, can only be acquired by faith. What I mean, is that we must act in obedience to God’s commands or else we will not acquire the promises God gave us; and He calls us to do things that often feel strange or foolish (like love our enemies and bless our persecutors).
When the Israelites came up to the Promised Land, they had come out of slavery in Egypt and through the desert (which was clearly not the fulfillment of God’s promises of blessing). So, when they got to the border and heard the report about the Canaanite giants, they had only one choice.
This is the problem that faith presents us. When God has called us to His purposes for our lives, which are to bless us and not to harm us, to give us a future and a hope, …when He has called us to those purposes, those purposes always bring us face to face with giants.
God’s purpose is both to see the downfall of wickedness and see the exaltation and blessing of His people. That means that the giants, the gates of hell, the hateful and arrogant are planted right at the place where God calls us to step out in faith. He doesn’t just want to bless us, but actually wants to bless us with the resources that up til now have been used for wicked purposes. He wants to plunder the wealth of the wicked and give it to the righteous. So, when God calls us to follow in faith to His promises, it is ALWAYS right into the land of the giants.
Remember, going back is simply not a legitimate option. The Israelites were right, their choice was between having stayed in Egypt, in slavery, or trusting that God would take care of them. If God quit taking care of them, then there was no future. At one level it’s no wonder that they started complaining for Egypt.
But that is our point. This is the problem following God by Faith creates. If we follow God by faith for a period of time, we will find that there is no longer anything to go back to. Somehow the bridges back to our old lives or the way that things used to be are burned. Going back is NOT an option.
So, faith almost always puts us between a rock and a hard place. Going back is not an option and going forward means giants. If we go back then we are left wandering in the desert. If we go forward then we are faced with giants who we are not able, by ourselves, to defeat.
So, Yes faith is NOT the most important thing. However, without it we CANNOT please God. All of His promises require faith for us to receive. We will have to obey His command to go places that seem crazy to go.
Summary
At this point, I can’t decide to give back the growing baby in my wife’s belly. There is no going back. Not that I want to. But, our new little girl must be carefully brought into a place of priority in our lives. I must re-prioritize and make the room in my heart, life and schedule. I have to trust God to give wisdom.
In the same way, faith changes everything.
It is NOT most important, (love is), but it is absolutely necessary. We surely don’t want to stay in slavery in Egypt.
However, wandering in the desert is really no better than slavery. So, we will have to have faith to face the giants in the Promised Land. There's no going back.
Nevertheless, faith is not the end goal, but rather living in the Promised Land of God’s rest where His unfailing love is our constant companion, that is our goal.
Thank God for His great and precious promises and for nourishing in us the faith to hold out for the fulfillment of those promises.
No comments:
Post a Comment