-Strength for Today- "Your Faith Will Be Tested" - Hebrews 13:5-6
Sometimes we believe that God is leading us in a certain direction, but as we continue down that path, we become discouraged and uncertain because it’s not working out as we expected. Every time we venture out in our life of faith, we’ll find something in our circumstances that, from a commonsense standpoint, will flatly contradict our faith. But listen, faith isn’t common sense.
In fact, common sense and faith are as different as:
· The natural life compared to
· The spiritual life.
We hold, within our spirit, the trustworthiness of God; for He has said, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee,” (Hebrews 13:5c), but when our strength runs dry, and our vision is blinded, will I endue this trial of my faith victoriously or will I turn back in defeat? Therefore, we decide to make a course correction, thinking that we’ve obviously gone the wrong way. Yet once we start down that new path, we soon discover that we’ve made a terrible mistake. One of the reasons we change “routes” and disobey God is because our faith gives way to:
· Doubt and
· Fear.
Therefore, it’s here that our faith gives way to “doubt” and “fear” because our focus moves from God to our circumstances. This happens when we make decisions based on our “finite” human reasoning’s.
When we forget that God is both our:
· Provider and
· Protector.
We’re giving in to doubt and fear, and are willing to sacrifice our most precious possession Christ, in order to gain the favor of the world. When we stop trusting God and start “fearing circumstances,”
· we’re forgetting the unconditional promises of God, and
· We’re forgetting that the King of Glory stepped out of heaven, and entered history so that we might be reconciled to the Father.
But as soon and we say, “But my God shall supply all your [my] need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus,” (Philippians 4:19), the testing of our faith begins. Faith must be tested, because it can only become our “intimate possession” through conflict. My friend, in this life, there’ll be continual testing of faith, up to the point of our physical death, which is the last great test. Faith is absolute trust in God, a trust that could never imagine that He would forsake us - Hebrews 13:5-6.
Author: Plez Lovelady, Jr., PhD