Good morning,
Because of our faith
God has a way of turning everything up side down in order for us to start getting things right side up. Our present faith culture has had a strong bent toward trusting God for a glorious life now instead of living a life filled with challenge and adventure that demonstrates why we are trusting the God of the Bible. The world around us is struggling with fear and pain and the reality of crumbling cultures. People are having to face the fact that our leaders are telling us what we want to hear while actually doing what they want for their own benefit behind our backs. The sad truth is that so much of what we call Christianity is using the same approach when collecting people to be a part of their movements. The apostle Paul lived in a time like that when he wrote his letter to the people at Rome. Not only was his world in turmoil, false teachers had shown up everywhere telling people what living by faith was all about. Paul was writing to tell God’s people what real faith looked like.
In Romans 5 Paul pointed out that Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege and that they could confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory. But he didn’t stop there. One of the privileges that we have is being able to rejoice when we run into problems and trials. Because God’s Holy Spirit is alive and working in us, we would be developing endurance that would show the world around us the reality of our faith. He also added that our endurance would develop strength of character so that we would become even more confident in our hope of salvation even when life gets harder. He told us that this kind of faith didn’t lead to exhaustion or disappointment. Paul wanted us to really understand how much God loved us and how important it was for us to rely on the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with love and faith in the Savior who really saves.(Romans 5:2-5) What Paul was writing about was the kind of faith that draws the frightened people around us to the safety and confidence that can only come from the genuine God of the Universe. God has given us life here and now surrounded by the challenges that he has planned into our lives so that we will be able to point others to the source of our joy and peace in the middle of the storms that threaten to blow us all away. Dear Lord, please help us to to welcome this kind of growing faith as part of our daily walk with you.
Romans 5:2 Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.
Roy Wisner
