IN TIMES LIKE THESE - We Need Faith that Prevails!
Christian brothers and sisters, in times like these, we need faith that prevails. We need a faith that can find our rest and comfort in the arms of God. A complacent, halfhearted faith just won't do in times like these.
God's brand of faith walks through fiery trials with the heart of a heaven-strong, willful warrior. We must have that brand of faith! Not the kind that only flourishes when everything's "good" around us! With God's help, we can have it! He will definitely help us look past the confusion brought on by this present crisis and help us rest in the plan of God. After all, He is Emmanuel, God with us!
We must see that true God-sent faith breeds heavenly confidence in the hearts of His people. God made it that way! It's a faith that prevails, no matter what!
- His Word teaches that through faith in Jesus Christ, we can stand through the toughest of times.
- His Word teaches us how to beat back even against the punches of pandemic and be victorious in Him.
- His Word teaches us to rise like vibrant, victorious, willful warriors bent on nothing but victory in the now and in the future.
This brand of faith hits the fastball of fear out of the park every time it's thrown at them. A half-hearted faith can't and won't produce that type of result, and God wants that brand of faith to be active in us now. So forget about how we did in the past. These are different times, and God hasn't called us to be statue-warriors resting on the successes of the past.
Honestly, it's in times like these we see what brand of faith we really have inside us! Because it's easy to talk about "faith" when everything is good! Right? So from this day on, we need to be faith-walkers, not faith-talkers?
I've said this a lot recently, but I'll repeat it! God has seen His people through much worse things than this present pandemic, and a brief journey through church history will prove that, to the most scurrilous of skeptics.
Let's face it, in recent years, Christians in the USA have had it very easy overall. We've lived in comfort with the freedom to worship God openly. We haven't experienced the persecution our brothers and sisters have faced in persecuted countries through the ongoing pandemic of anti-christian bias. Those dear saints of God have seen family members beaten and even beheaded for their faith. Some have experienced expulsion from careers, families, and even their hometowns because of their association with Jesus Christ.
Let's be honest a little pushback on social media over a biblical quote would not be considered persecution by those Christians. Neither would it be by those first-century Christians who were mercilessly marched into the Roman Coliseum and eaten by wild beasts. Or compared to Blandina, the 17-year-old Christian slave girl who was martyred. This girl Blandina was finally killed after surviving being thrown to a wild bull in a net and being tossed around for sport. She was martyred after surviving being made to sit in a red hot iron chair for not renouncing her faith in Jesus Christ. That happened during the first-century persecutions against Christians. That is a faith that prevails! Do we have it?
Can you imagine telling our stories of persecution to those early Christian martyrs or even modern-day ones? There we are dramatizing how bad it was for us when they shut down our drive-in church service? Here again, let me clarify that I am not saying we shouldn't stand up against having those drive-in services being shutdown. But let's be honest, that's child's play compared to what many of our brothers and sisters are experiencing even now in other places around the world. Most reading this have never faced persecution like that. I haven't! Have you? If you have, feel free to comment and help build in me and us a faith that prevails. We all need it! I know I need it, and I want it!
What I'm saying is this, Christians need to toughen up more than just a little! We need to grow in our faith in Jesus Christ so we can withstand what they withstood if and when that becomes necessary. I know God will give us a very special grace when that happens if we're prepared to receive it. So let's get ready.
- Are we ready to do that in our present spiritual condition?
- Are we living with a baby-wipe brand of faith; or with a whimsical-warrior brand of faith?
- Are we living with a defeated victim mentality type of faith; or with the faith that prevails?
The measure of faith God gives us is the heavenly brand that prevails. It's the kind of faith that helps us see past problems to the comforting and victorious voice of God. God's brand of faith doesn't tell us to hide until the coast is clear! It tells us to stand and be counted!
Here's some excellent advice from the Apostle Paul that all of us should take to heart. "Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one." (Ephesians 6:13-16 NKJV)
Any other brand of faith than this is what I call fruit-loops faith. It tastes good, looks good, but has no spiritually nutritional value to it.
- I don't want to hide and just try to feel good, do you?
- I don't want to spend these days just trying to get God's peace and hope! Do you?
- I want to have the brand of faith that gives.
I believe you'll agree with me that the kind of faith we want is the kind that finds a need and meets it. Right? We want and need the brand of faith that looks beyond our needs, to the needs of others. The kind of faith Jesus had! Right?
True disciples and followers of Jesus want to hear God's voice loud and clear. We don't want to miss out on God speaking prophetically to His people during this hour of crisis. God is speaking, and the seekers are hearing God's words of encouragement, exhortation, and comfort. The reality is, when God speaks, we get energized and want to walk out what we're hearing and seeing. Right?
Paul said, "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." (Romans 10:17 NKJV) Jesus gave us that example to follow in John 15:19. He said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner." Jesus saw what the Father wanted to be done! Jesus heard and saw God's directives. If we take time to listen, we will too!
Faith that prevails looks and lives with expectations! Faith that prevails longs to hear God's voice and do what God wants to do! The truth is God always does greater things through those who believe! Jesus said, "So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." (Luke 11:9 NKJV)
Notice, Jesus didn't say: it might be given to you, you might find, or it might be opened to you. He said it will be! That's very clear and simple, right? If I focus solely and negatively on what's going on around me, my prayers are going to be diminished, my fearless faith will become somewhat faith-less. Let me say, I do keep up with what's going on so I can pray accurately and precisely as I go forward. Certainly not to be overwhelmed with fear, doubt, and anxiety!
If I perpetually launch my thinking in a downward angle towards impossibilities, my faith will be weak and futile, not faith that prevails. On the other hand, if I propel the thoughts of my mind and the meditations of my heart upward to God, into His Word and the promises He gave, I will have a faith that prevails.
As I said before, living this way won't change everything around me. John 16:33 (ESV) is a promise too, "In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world." However, it does change my perspective on what's going on around me. The faith that prevails helps me see myself as victorious with God in Christ.
Faith that prevails opens my eyes to seek God's Kingdom for what it is, not what others say it isn't. And that helps release God's Holy Spirit power in me.
Faith that prevails assists me in looking at the future with the heart of a full-blown optimist and not a blown-up pessimist. Pessimistic people like to obliterate the faith in others. They take every opportunity to blast their faithless streams of not so living water on the fiery-faith of those around them. Faith-less, pessimistic people are nearly always ready to tear your words of faith apart with their ballistic missiles of doubt and unbelief. Fortunately, their words are no match for the power of God's Word or for the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ. Their words drop like flies when they hit the shield of faith that protects our soul!
Take a few minutes and read the great faith chapter in Hebrews 11 for further verification of this. Every follower of God mentioned in this chapter had the faith that prevails intertwined with an eternal trust in God. It was set like concrete in their hearts and could not be broken even with the sledgehammer of persecution. It was so much a part of them that not even the worst torture could not wrestle it away from them. Read it for yourself!
Here is part of it, "Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Still, others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented” of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth." (Hebrews 11:35-38 NKJV)
Now, what's it going to be for you and me?
- Will we walk through this crisis and beyond, contemplating what could've been if this didn't happen?
- Will we be people overflowing with the faith that prevails looking into the future with a heart of hope and dependency on God?
- Will we see this birth pang in history as an opportunity to cataclysmically change the spiritual lives of people around us?
- Will we see it as a chance to give hope during a crisis?
* Or will we see it as an opportunity to also share the hope and promise of eternal life found in Jesus Christ?
We all have to admit that when things are comfortable and going well in society, the sincere faith-filled person is not as necessary as they are in times of crisis. In times like these, they stand as God's Warriors! They beat down the attacks of the enemy and cut to pieces the words of the naysayers saying as Jesus said, "O you of little faith" (Matthew 6:30 NKJV).
In times like these, we need to hear from these legendary warriors of purified faith. They've gone through many fiery trials in the past and remain standing strong to encourage others to do the same! Amen!
Stop and listen to those voices as they echo the Word of God amid the battle saying, "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us." (Romans 8:37 ESV).
The Christians Paul was writing about here were and are battle-tested spiritual conquerors! They don't pretend there's no battle going on, and they don't hide from the battle! Instead, they see through the eyes of their all-conquering King Jesus, and they press on to defeat the enemies of their souls. They see problems as something to be conquered through the power of God and the promises He made. Their song is "Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war. With the cross of Jesus, going on before."
So look to your King, Jesus, seated in heavenly splendor, on His glorious throne of grace! Look to your God, who created everything with His words. Begin to thank and praise Him that He will see you through. Praise him for His faithfulness! Let His faith, His confidence rise up inside you! Can you feel it!
If faithless people laugh at the Godly spirit and confidence residing inside you, who cares? God is greater than people! God is greater than wicked politicians! God is greater than pandemics! So why should the followers of Jesus Christ spend more time thinking about the evil in the world than the greatness of our God? Great people overcome evil with good.
- Now is the time for the people of faith to rise up in the faith.
- Now is the time to be His luminous light in a world that's retreating in fear and darkness.
- Now is the time to be the church that Jesus said gates of hell would not prevail against. Right?
In ending, let me say this exact type of crisis and the way it's happening has never happened before in history. It indeed has not occurred before in this digital age of information and communication. In the midst of this, I praise God He has put in place many tools to preach the gospel through the Internet. We can declare the gospel on websites, blogs, youtube, online radio, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, texts, and more.
God's people must embrace the faith that prevails through Jesus Christ and use these tools to proclaim His message of salvation. We must use these tools to inspire people to look to Jesus Christ for help, encouraging people to call on God and ask for mercy. If we don't, possibly one day, we'll look back at the Judgement Seat of Christ and gasp at our lost opportunities to fulfill God's Great Commission.
A time like this will never again be repeated in history. Every calamity, every pandemic, is different, and with it comes various opportunities for the people of God. Let's take this opportunity seriously and "Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might." as Paul said in Ephesians 6:10 (NKJV)
Be a faith warrior and walk in the faith that prevails! Lean on God and His pillars of faith, hope, and love. Lean heavily on the delivering power of the Holy Spirit. But most of all, lean on Jesus Christ, your Saviour, Lord, and King! Remember, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever." (Hebrews 13:8 NKJV)
God bless you as you follow him in Jesus name, Brian Mark Weller