Faith Moves

I was looking through a devotion i wrote a couple years ago and found something that i still believed in, yet i felt it needed more clarity because it sounded as if faith was dependent on works (because it is not). Your faith produces and affects what you do, instead of being the effect of works. Yet faith is not merely some fleeting fancy that persuades you at one moment in your life, and just leaves you with a golden key that you can pick up and put down. Faith can be as strong as bricks, and faith can be weak as hay. But although faith is not directed by your works, it is worked upon. There is still a kinetic element in one’s faith that is tested by everything else in life that surrounds it, and it’s our faith that either stands or fails, that is weakened or strengthened. But it is a decision we must consciously make each time our faith is questioned, to either work on it or let it be battered.

Our faith in God is constantly at work whether we know it or not. We can live life thinking that our faith is just a sentence claiming we believe in God, without letting it be active in our lives, working in our behaviors and testimony. Or we can live life through faith by living out our belief in God. It’s not just a play and rearranging of words, but grasp the meaning.

We make conscious decisions about our faith; it is not something we are born with or a mere title that categorizes us within Christianity. For example, a woman can be a mother by title because she has gone through labor and produced an offspring, but the role that she bravely steps up to involve and sacrifice herself for the loving and nurturing of her baby is the deeper definition of motherhood. A woman grows into her role, and with each day, becoming better, more mature and wiser in her understanding of her child and herself. Faith also must go beyond titles and statements; faith must grow and mature.

Our faith matures several ways, sometimes through pain and trials, and sometimes by our own spiritual exercise. We can build our faith by immersing in scripture, so we know what we believe, and why- and who, and when. In 1 Pet.2:2, it says, “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.” In the beginning of our faith, we learn little by little, mainly the basics of what we believe, and it’s by those things we’ve learned that help us to change and live for God. But as our lives continue, so does the fight to live for God, because Satan tries even harder to snatch us away from fully living for Christ. But by building our faith, we become more mature in our role, and therefore giving us more defense to run from sin. “Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil” (heb.5:13-14). The second part of the verse says “by constant use have trained themselves,” suggesting that there is a prolonged sense of time involved, as well as work. Our faith in its infancy produces only what it knows in its infancy, but when we continue to work on our faith by knowing more and more of who God is and what He’s done, and His plan for us, our faith in its maturity produces what it knows in its maturity. Righteousness becomes a conscious joy. Holiness is pushed up to the top 10 on our list. Our faith produces good works.

That’s why faith is never easy- even to the most “Christ-like” person, or the people in leadership positions in church, or the people who are termed “good” and “holy.” It just seems like their second nature to live for Christ is easy, but we most likely fail to see the pain they went through that tested and strengthened their faith. We don’t see the years they’ve toiled and struggled with their faith, like we do. But they’ve had to make similar choices. Their current exterior is the product of “constant” interior “training.”

Living in faith is not effortless. Sometimes we’re brought to our knees. Sometimes we so desperately want to run back and away from the cross. And sometimes we want to hide because of guilt or pride. But whatever the circumstance, we still need to make choices. When those choices come, we must have Christ in our focus, and no matter how hard it is to trust in Him, to come to Him, and to submit to Him, we can have the assurance that God’s grace and power will cover us. “Nothing will be impossible for you” (Matt.7:20). So let us continue to strengthen our faith, not let it stagnate or treat it like a key that we can pick up and put down. Let it stir in us every day. Let it jump and dance in our hearts that gives us joy. And lastly, let your faith move.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 27th, 2007 at 11:12 am and is filed under Devotions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.