Struggles. Our lives are riddled with them it seems. Whether we are battling spiritual attacks at work, amongst relationships with unbelievers, or closer to home - disagreements with relatives, rebellious children, addictions, feelings of worry, fear, insecurity and defeat, there are always problems. Although the Lord promised us troubles as believers, we can't help but wonder sometimes just what is going on?! Why don't I ever feel successful? Who is there to turn to for useful advice and understanding? Why do I feel stuck? Why is this all SO hard? Fortunately, our God has made many promises to us: never to leave us, never to forget us, to love us too much to leave us where He found us, to be our ever present help in times of need. How can we truly believe in these promises for our lives?
Every time I have been sick enough to need a visit with my doctor, he has stopped me in my miserable description of all my symptoms and prescribed me a medicine for relief. Each time I have followed his instructions in the past and taken all of the medicine, believing a doctor's integrity and authority on illnesses and healing, I have gotten better. Before leaving my home to start the day, I have to know what the weather forecast is going to be. It's cloudy outside. Will it snow, rain, storm, and for how long? How cold or hot will it be? Sure enough, those weathermen fill in all the blanks day after day by the integrity and authority vested in them by their profession as meteorologists. Each day their advice reassures me I can be prepared for the storms ahead. My best friend of 14 years, my grandmothers, and my accountability girlfriends are a treasure trove of advice, reason, trustworthiness, and hope. Over the years they have seen me at my best, at my worst, and never left my side. There's only one problem with all of this.
People get sick again and again. Weathermen can not predict any natural disaster, or the movement of a rain cloud perfectly. Other women and friends are just as human as I am, susceptible to make mistakes, poor decisions, and sin. To move from fear and failure to faith, we have to find something of greater substance to place our hope and expectations in. Perhaps someone with a transcendent integrity and authority, always higher than the changing conditions and patterns in our daily lives!
The righteous shall live by faith (Romans 1:11, Hebrews 10:38, Habakkuk 2:4, Galatians 3:11). Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not yet seen (Hebrews 11:1). It is not a feeling, a thought or a blind leap of belief. It is a substance we can place our expectations in for good things to come we do not yet see. There is a substance with transcendent integrity and authority. Its name is Jesus Christ. Considering the evidence presented by Pastor Cliff in the past two messages, we can already begin to see the first step to living by faith, is to recognize that our belief in Jesus is not blind, but known. Let's consider further the proof backing up a known belief in the substance of Christ through His integrity and authority. Just how much is there to know about His character (Genesis 1, Job 38:1-42:6, Deuteronomy 10:14)? He is infinitely greater and able to provide eternal healing, shelter and protection through every storm (Psalm 121, James 1:5-8). All of this not just for you, or me, but for all those who choose to believe He is who He says He is. He alone spoke things into existence from nothing, before time, transcendently above and outside of time, making the unseen, seen (Romans 8:24, 2Corinthians 4:18).
The second part of an active, moving, growing faith, is to make the decision to submit to and entrust your needs will be met in this Substance, in who Jesus represents, in who God is. Isn't this how we have learned to trust doctors, weathermen, and close friends? Thinking back and remembering all of the instances they have helped you with before has established your decision to willingly trust them for the future. How much more then can we trust God by what He has done for all of our past circumstances (Psalm 105:1-11, Deuteronomy 8-10, Romans 5:8, Ephesians 2:1-10)? We walk by faith, not by sight (2Corinthians 5:7) when we entrust our hope and expecations to the evidence which proves the ability of the Substance Jesus Christ to follow through on His promises because He is perfect and can not go back on who He is. This kind of transcendent faith in action is what got Peter out of the boat, helped the people cross the Red Sea on dry land, how the bleeding woman was healed, how Rahab did not perish, and how the walls of Jericho fell! So then, tell me again about the struggles you have been enduring on your own, apart from a willing, active belief and trust in the only Living God? As of today, you have survived 100% of your worst days. Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh: is there anything too hard for me? - Jeremiah 32:27
People get sick again and again. Weathermen can not predict any natural disaster, or the movement of a rain cloud perfectly. Other women and friends are just as human as I am, susceptible to make mistakes, poor decisions, and sin. To move from fear and failure to faith, we have to find something of greater substance to place our hope and expectations in. Perhaps someone with a transcendent integrity and authority, always higher than the changing conditions and patterns in our daily lives!
The righteous shall live by faith (Romans 1:11, Hebrews 10:38, Habakkuk 2:4, Galatians 3:11). Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not yet seen (Hebrews 11:1). It is not a feeling, a thought or a blind leap of belief. It is a substance we can place our expectations in for good things to come we do not yet see. There is a substance with transcendent integrity and authority. Its name is Jesus Christ. Considering the evidence presented by Pastor Cliff in the past two messages, we can already begin to see the first step to living by faith, is to recognize that our belief in Jesus is not blind, but known. Let's consider further the proof backing up a known belief in the substance of Christ through His integrity and authority. Just how much is there to know about His character (Genesis 1, Job 38:1-42:6, Deuteronomy 10:14)? He is infinitely greater and able to provide eternal healing, shelter and protection through every storm (Psalm 121, James 1:5-8). All of this not just for you, or me, but for all those who choose to believe He is who He says He is. He alone spoke things into existence from nothing, before time, transcendently above and outside of time, making the unseen, seen (Romans 8:24, 2Corinthians 4:18).
The second part of an active, moving, growing faith, is to make the decision to submit to and entrust your needs will be met in this Substance, in who Jesus represents, in who God is. Isn't this how we have learned to trust doctors, weathermen, and close friends? Thinking back and remembering all of the instances they have helped you with before has established your decision to willingly trust them for the future. How much more then can we trust God by what He has done for all of our past circumstances (Psalm 105:1-11, Deuteronomy 8-10, Romans 5:8, Ephesians 2:1-10)? We walk by faith, not by sight (2Corinthians 5:7) when we entrust our hope and expecations to the evidence which proves the ability of the Substance Jesus Christ to follow through on His promises because He is perfect and can not go back on who He is. This kind of transcendent faith in action is what got Peter out of the boat, helped the people cross the Red Sea on dry land, how the bleeding woman was healed, how Rahab did not perish, and how the walls of Jericho fell! So then, tell me again about the struggles you have been enduring on your own, apart from a willing, active belief and trust in the only Living God? As of today, you have survived 100% of your worst days. Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh: is there anything too hard for me? - Jeremiah 32:27
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