God Honors Faith

 Jesus deliberately took time to show Thomas His hands and His side, saying "Because you have seen Me, have you believed?"  However, His next statement reveals what really pleases God.  "Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed."

"Without faith it is impossible to please God," according to the admonition in Hebrews 11:6.  The obvious challenge of faith is to walk in the Spirit, to set the mind on the spirit (or Spirit) rather than live in the flesh (according to the thoughts and feelings that our fallen human nature dictates).  On one hand, Jesus states that the Word is spirit and life, and on the other hand, Romans 8 points out that to set the mind on the flesh is death.  Furthermore, Jeremiah 17:9 declares that the heart is deceitful above all things, desperately corrupt.  God has clearly given us the truth needed to reject the deceitful, misguided fleshly understanding, and instead to choose to see things from His truthful perspective.  As Isaiah 55 clearly states that God's thoughts and ways are not our thoughts and ways, as the heavens are higher than the earth. 

Two facts to consider in order to establish a good foundation for life.  One, in Romans 12 we are encouraged to think soberly or seriously, that God has given to each of us a measure of faith.  Each of us has faith, just as each of us has muscles; it is up to us to use what has been given to develop it.  Secondly, the Word of God is truth that is directed to our will.  Consider several Scriptural instructions, "I set before you life and death, choose life."  Or Jesus, telling the father of the dying child, "do not be afraid, only believe."  Therefore, we can choose to believe.  Jesus admonishes us to receive His kingdom like a little child.  Does a child have trouble receiving a present?  A good start to learn to simply receive is to say "thank you."  The more we read and hear the truth of God's Word, the easier it is to receive what it says in our hearts and declare it gratefully with our lips.

Man, in his pride, always thinks his thoughts are right.  So God is pleased and blesses each one who deliberately chooses God's thoughts over what the natural fleshly way of thinking would suggest.  Was not Jesus amazed at the woman who put in her last two coins when that was all she had to live on? Or the woman who refused to be discouraged by the disciples and kept crying out for Jesus to give her even the crumbs from the table?  The point is, God is pleased when we receive the Word with meekness.  He blesses us when we choose to dwell on His thoughts and live by His Word rather than our own selfish desires and understanding.   

Therefore, my word and suggestion today is to choose to stand in faith in whatever the challenges before you.  Give thanks and hold on to the Word of God, even stating what God says out loud to establish and maintain your faithful position.  Don't doubt in the dark what you have received in the Light.  God honors those who honor Him and His Word.  

Enough

Can you imagine God greeting you, "O mighty man of valor," when you, like Gideon, are cowardly hiding from the enemy and troubled by what is going on in the world?  Does it sound too good to be true, that God sees you as an overcoming, mighty one who is always led in triumph and who crushes the evil one under your feet?  Yet, what He has done is enough to make you more than you could think or imagine.  Let God be true and every man a liar, according to the words of Romans 3:4.  

In Psalm 50 God closes with the words, "to him who orders his conduct aright I will show the salvation of God."  Salvation is the noun describing being saved or delivered from.  When Jesus healed or touched someone, He would say "be made whole."  To be whole is to be completely delivered or saved from sin and all the effects of sin.  However, until God is able to transform our thinking and heart to know our "we are made whole" salvation, we continue to limp between two different opinions. On one hand we are filled with faith that the "Christ is in you" life of God is overcoming all circumstances, and on the other hand, that we are just weak human beings who fail often.  Our verse in Psalm 50 affirms that as we choose to obey God, He begins to show us His salvation, how He has made us whole and overcomers and how totally we are free from the old fallen-nature ways.   Thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph.

Jesus promised the Holy Spirit would lead us and guide us into all truth.  As we let the Word dwell in us richly, the Holy Spirit speaks to our spirit until we "know" what Jesus has given us and are able to walk in it.  In the first letter of John, there are something like 23 "by this we know" statements.  The ultimate definition of eternal life given by Jesus in John 17 is "that they may know the Father and Jesus Christ whom He has sent."   God wants us to know we are whole in Him and has made provision for us to come to that conviction that it is already accomplished.  

Jesus declares He is the first of many brethren, who share His life and nature.  It seems almost unbelievable and too much to grasp that what Jesus has done has literally made us like Him.  We just need to receive it.  Note the words of 1 John 4:17, "as He is, so are we in the world." We are partakers of His divine nature (2 Peter 1:3-4), but the remainder of that section describes how to press in to make it our own, namely to diligently add to your faith, virtue; to virtue, knowledge; to knowledge, self-control; to self-control, perseverance; to perseverance, brotherly kindness love; to brotherly kindness love, love.  Therefore, He can conclude the clincher, that if we do these things we will never fail or be unfruitful.  

The point is Jesus has accomplished what the name Jehovah JIreh declares, God is enough. There is a song, Jireh by Maverick City, that states "You are enough, forever enough, always enough, more than enough."  Our hope of glory, Christ in us, establishes that the overcoming power and love of God lives in us and causes us to always be more than enough for every challenge.  Praise God forever for His glorious salvation!