Good morning,
We
are surrounded by people who are eager to tell us how to deal with the
problems and challenges of life. We are also painfully aware of all the
things we have spent good money to buy and time to make them work, only
to discover we were sold a dream that turned out to be a lie. Just
because we believe that something will work for us doesn’t mean that our
faith will actually make it work. We will know that something works
when it holds up under the challenges of working as promised under real
life conditions. Companies who make and sell cars are required to spend
large amounts of money proving that what they have made will actually
keep running faithfully from year to year when we keep using them to get
us from one place to another. Their proving grounds are full of
challenges like bad roads and nasty conditions to make sure that what
they designed was more than an engineers dream.
Those of us who
are evangelical Christians find ourselves facing the same set of
challenges. Sadly, most of what we call evangelism and church growth is
based on giving information and sharing plans and programs that haven’t
been tested under the challenges of living out these truths under
impossible conditions. God has made it clear that it is impossible for
us to please him without genuine faith in him. Difficulty is God’s
proving ground for our faith. God allows difficulty to show us and
those around us whether our faith is genuine faith or just a religious
conviction. When we demonstrate patient endurance in doing God’s will
and we do so while facing pain and loss, we are living out the reality
of our God’s love and care for us. Our lives will show that our faith
in God’s promises is based on his eternal plan for us, not on the
challenges we face as we go through life. God really is coming back to
reclaim his earth very soon. He will come back at just the right time.
If our righteousness is real, it will lead to a life based on our faith
and not on our circumstances. If we give up it proves that our faith
was just in our heads and not in our hearts. Our Judge will know that
as well and when we meet him, we will too. Dear Lord, please help us to
have the kind of faith that will withstand the proving grounds of life.
Hebrews 10:36
Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do
God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised. 37 “For in
just a little while, the Coming One will come and not delay.
38 And my
righteous ones will live by faith. But I will take no pleasure in anyone
who turns away.”
Roy Wisner
