Faith (Part 3)
Faith (Part 3)
Opening Reading: Mattheew 6:25-34
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
Many times when we think about or talk about great faith we think about accomplishing those great tasks in life, maybe you even think about those champions of faith in the Bible like Abraham, Moses, Joshua, David, Daniel, and some of those New Testament characters like Paul.
But it seems to me that God has given us faith for all kinds of occasions, for the monumental challenges of life, for the fiery darts that may come our way, even the ability to believe what most people do not about God, Jesus, salvation, Heaven and other spiritual things.
But there is also the type of faith that we need for everyday living; the faith we need sometimes to get out of bed in the morning to do what we have to do, faith to buy what we need to survive or even bigger items like cars and homes, to go into debt and have the faith that we will be able to pay those bills. We also need faith to do our jobs or run our businesses. We need a degree faith as we relate to others so that we can trust them. We need faith to keep our marriages going smoothly. And faith to raise our kids, even when we send them off to school where they are in the care of others in this crazy world.
Faith in our daily life is very, very important, and it is necessary if we want to eliminate worry, stress and anxiety, and have peace of mind to enjoy everyday life.
I am here today to tell you that we need to make it even more of a habit to pull out or exercise our faith (trusting in God, even trusting in others) and stop doubting, and stop worrying about every little thing. Trusting God and having faith that He is in control leaves no room for worry or anxiety to take over your life.
And here you may say, “But Ben, you don’t know what my life is like. You don’t know all the responsibilities I have. You don’t know how many bills I have. You don’t know what it’s like to be sick like I am or how bad I feel. You don’t know how much pressure I have at work. You don’t know how lonely I feel. “ Etc.
I may not know exactly how you feel but one thing I do know is that fear, worry, frustration and anxiety is not good for you. It can hurt you and make you sick and will rob you of the peace and joy that God wants you to be experiencing in your life.
And I also know and believe that a strong faith in God, (that is when you learn to trust in Him and trust in His ability to help you handle your situation, to make you secure and stable) is the answer for all that this life and Satan wants to throw at you. Our ability to have faith is a blessing from God!
If you think about it, most of the things we worry about and are stressed out about are things we cannot change anyway. They are out of our control and only God can change those things. So we just need to learn to turn those things over to Him and relax.
I remember many years ago when I first started going to a chiropractor after hurting my back. I’ll never forget what he told me. As he was working on me he said, “You don’t believe in God do you?” I told him of course I did, I told Him that I was a Christina. He basically told me “You could have fooled me. He said you so uptight and stressed out that it has obviously affected your body and its ability to heal itself. “ He told me that if I really believed in God and trusted Him I would not be so stress and ready to pop like a broken spring.
And there I was ‘the Christian’, ‘the Bible student’ going to the Northeast School of Biblical Studies at the time. I guess I had something else to learn. We not only need to trust God with the big things in life, we also need to trust and believe He is there to help us with the everyday little things as well.
Many of us are not only dealing with pressures that surround us in the here and now, many of us are dealing with stress, remorse, regrets and guilt from some things we have done or failed to do in the past.
At one point in his life the Apostle Paul approved of the capture, imprisonment and death of members of the church. But then thru a chain of events he, himself became a believer, and was baptized and became a member of the very church he was persecuting.
When he realized how wrong he was we read in Acts 9 that he could not eat or drink for three days. He was so full of remorse I could not help but wonder how he could ever go on to become one of the greatest apostle and spokesman for Jesus ever, or how he could get over those feelings of regret. But listen to what he has to say as he later writes to his son in the faith, Timothy: “12 I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength to do his work. He considered me trustworthy and appointed me to serve him, 13 even though I used to blaspheme the name of Christ. In my insolence, I persecuted his people. But God had mercy on me because I
did it in ignorance and unbelief. 14 Oh, how generous and gracious our Lord was! He filled me with the faith and love that come from Christ Jesus. 15 This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them all. 16 But God had mercy on me so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of his great patience with even the worst sinners. Then others will realize that they, too, can believe in him and receive eternal life. 17 All honor and glory to God forever and ever! He is the eternal King, the unseen one who never dies; he alone is God. Amen. 1 Tim. 1:12-17
Because of his faith in Christ, Paul recognized and saw the Love of God at work in his life. Even though Paul did horrible things in his past he did not let guilt of those past sins cripple his life and service to our Lord later. Paul accepted God’s mercy and forgiveness and moved forward and so should we.
If you are a Christian you are a new creation, in Christ. The old gone and you have been made new. God change Paul so much he gave him a new name. His old name was Saul.
If we really trust and have faith in Christ, and believe and accept the love of God we don’t have to go around feeling guilty and burdened from what we did in the past. If you have done something bad since you became a Christian, you can still get right with God. All you need to do is repent and ask for forgiveness. We are told in 1 John 1:9 that “If we confess our sins He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
Faith in God’s love and forgiveness can set us free from the burden of past mistakes and free us from guilt… we just need believe and accept His forgiveness.
Our Faith can also shield and protect us from future uncertainties.
Some people read their horoscope and even pay to go to fortunetellers hoping to find out what going to happen in their future. Others worry about the future and ask questions like, “What’s going to happen if…. “, or “What going to happen when…”.
What’s going to happen if I get sick, or if I get laid off from my job, or if my car dies on the road, or if my child gets sick with some weird disease, or if I get Alzheimer’s when I am old, or if my spouse dies before me?” …. What am I going to do?
Or, what is going to happen when I get old, or when I stop working will I have enough money to live on?”
We could worry about an endless number of things concerning our future. Questions like these cause some to fret and fear the future.
But again, trusting in God, in His love for you, in His providence, and believing that He will work out all things for those who love Him takes away our fear.
In our opening reading Jesus told His disciples not to worry about our life, what we will eat and what we will drink, about your body or what you will wear.. He said that your heavenly Father knows what you need, and He goes on to say, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
I cannot stress the importance of developing a faith habit; YES a HABIT, a habit of trusting God with all, and in every situation. By doing so you will find that peace and joy you are yearning for. I REALLY believe this!
So what can we do to help us develop this ‘faith habit’ ?
I believe it’s important to verbalize our faith over and over; actually say, ‘I trust you God!,’ or ‘I believe that God is working in this situation in my life right now and He’s going to take care of me.’ Or. ‘I believe when the time comes my God will provide what I need.’ Speak words like this over and over all day long! This can recondition our mind and exercise our faith.
Consider what David says in Psalm 25.
“In you, Lord my God, I put my trust.
2 I trust in you;
do not let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me.
3 No one who hopes in you will ever be put to shame, but shame will come on those who are treacherous without cause.
David was not ashamed to verbalize his faith. I believe it’s how he became the great man that he was, a man after God’s own heart. David made a habit of expressing his faith over and over, and I believe it’s imperative that we do the same!
Read God’s word. Read the Psalm and take note of how David and others saw God acting in their lives and the peace that this gave them.
Stop speaking like a victim, like someone defeated and like no one care what you are going through and learn to speak words of faith over and over and over. It will change your life!
The best way to defeat worry and fear is to resist them right away; when they first enter your mind. The Apostle Peter said that we should resist the devil and I believe that we should do it right away (1 Peter 5:9).
In Romans 1:17 Paul wrote that we need to live by faith. Faith is fills us with hopeful expectations and doesn’t give up believing that God will help us in any and all situations. And that’s my challenge for you today! Expect the best. Expect God is going to work things out in your favor.
For more lessons click on the following link: http://granvillenychurchofchrist.org/?page_id=566
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