Faith is an essential
part of the Christian life. We came to God by faith, we live by faith,
all we have is the result of faith.
Faith in God is at the
very heart of the Christian experience.
There is a chapter in the
bible that speaks exclusively of men and women who lived by faith, trusted God,
made choices, built boats...all by faith. They believed God, acted and
saw the results of their faith in their lives.
But others (and this is
where we struggle with the passage) lived by faith and died, lost everything,
struggled, were tortured and seemed to fail.
We have a problem with that
because we have adopted the belief that if we have faith good things will
happen, prosperity will come, prayers will be answered, mountains will move.
But not for everyone, not
all the time.
Some will live by faith and have nothing,
be hungry,
struggle to live at all
and others will lose their lives.
All these things will
happen in the lives of people of faith!
How can this be?
Doesn't faith do
things?
Doesn't it have good
results?
Here are the words from
this chapter on faith that we try to ignore,
"There were others
who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even
better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains
and imprisonment. They
were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by
the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute,
persecuted and mistreated— the
world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in
caves and in holes in the ground. These
were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had
been promised,"
These were men and women of faith and it appears their faith
"didn't work!" But faith is not a gum ball machine...put in your
coin and get your prize...it's trust in God with no idea of what will happen
next.
It's living with eyes on God regardless of the outcome.
Faith is trust in God. It's not a magic lamp I can use for my
desires, but it's a decision to trust in the God who loves me no matter what
happens!
So what if I'm one of the "others", those who don't
see their faith "work?" What if I trust God and lose
everything? I still win! I'm trusting God, even if I have nothing
at all, even if I'm tortured, even if I lose my life...I still win and my faith
in God will take me into eternity!
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