Trusting In Gods Will...

"But I count my life of no value to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry given me by the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of God's grace."  (Acts 20:24, HCSB).  
"But nothing, not even my life, is more important than my completing my mission..." (Acts 20:24, CEB). 
"For David, after serving his own generation in God's plan, fell asleep, was buried with his fathers, and decayed"  (Acts 13:36, HCSB).

"There are many devices in a man's heart; nevertheless the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand," (cf. Prov. 19:21). 

We all have had come to forks in the road and wondered which way to go.  In fact, if we don't care where we end up, it doesn't matter which road we take, we'll end up somewhere for sure!  But God's will doesn't work like that: either we are in or out of it and the safest place to be is right there in the middle of God's plan for our lives.  Jesus knew this too and from the time of His youth He sensed His divine calling to be about His Father's business and superimposed that will on His, as His motto of life became "Thy will be done!"  He taught us as disciples to pray likewise and to follow in His steps.  The temptation comes to do things our way, and that is the epitome of sin--doing our own thing, that we stop trusting God and try to save ourselves by our own efforts.  But we must trust and rely solely on Jesus for salvation and not on the energy of the flesh or our own willpower.

Jesus faced a dilemma in His life when He was faced with the temptation to do things His way or the Father's way--in the Garden of Gethsemane.  Finally, in total relinquishment, He prayed, "Nevertheless, not as I will but thy will be done."  He could've decided to avoid the draft of the Father to be our Savior and just saved Himself and He'd still be God, but we would be lost sinners.  It's good He chose to die on our behalf instead of avoiding the Via Dolorosa and its crucible.  But we are to follow in His steps and to take up our cross and die to self too.  We are to live for God's will not ourselves.

We should always be assured that God knows best and also that God didn't answer some of our prayers.  He knows how to run our lives better than anyone of us and we ought to give Him full ownership.  We can be assured that Jesus knew the trials of facing these kinds of dilemmas and that the only way we can avoid regrets is to trust God with all our hearts and not lean unto our own understanding (per Prov. 3:5-6).   We have no better idea than God and His plan for us is that which is perfect and good for us.  We are to fulfill God's purpose for us and realize His will in all our ways.

The life lived for self is filled with regret, insecurity, and worry because there's no place for trusting God. "He will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusteth in thee" (cf. Isaiah 26:3).  God wants our faith to be tested in the crucible of fire to make sure it's genuine, saving faith and faith isn't worth much if it's easy!  God cannot force faith either and have it worth anything because that isn't real faith, but coercion or determinism.

For this reason, God makes faith a gift of grace and elects us to believe by grace; it's not because of merit or wisdom we have it but we believe through grace (cf. Acts 18:27). Even if salvation were by wisdom or intelligence, God is the One who makes one wise or intelligent--you cannot escape grace. "Grace reigns through righteousness" (cf. Romans 5:21).    It has been granted unto us to believe; i.e., it's a privilege!  (cf. Phil. 1:29).  It's the work of God (cf. John 6:29). God works in us both to do and to will of His good pleasure (cf. Phil. 2:13).

But we can rest assured that Jesus went through every type of trial for us and we don't experience anything unique that He cannot relate to us with as a human (cf. Heb. 2:18).  "[B]ecause we don't have a high priest who can't sympathize with our weaknesses but instead one who was tempted in every way that we are, except without sin (Heb. 4:15, CEB).     Soli Deo Gloria!

Expecting Heaven On Earth

"Do not both adversity and good come from the mouth of the Most High?" (Lam. 3:38, HCSB).
"I form light and create darkness, I make success and create disaster; I, Yahweh, do all these things" (Isaiah 45:7, HCSB). 

Many people wonder where God is when it hurts or during a disaster, even a pandemic; why would God allow such evil?  "Who can command these things to happen without the LORD's permission?" (Lam. 3:37, NLT).   First, we must not believe that God intends for this life to be heaven on earth, but a dress rehearsal for the next, a trial run. Similarly, in grief people especially ask where was God when my son died?  The same place He was when His Son died!   This shows:  God cares, loves, and grieves like us being in His image.

We are here to prepare for the next life and to fulfill God's will.  We are here to make music on God's stringed instrument meant to vibrate forever. Suffering and adversity build character and people either react or respond as some improve or get better but some only get bitter, as the saying goes: the same sun melts the butter hardens the clay.

Where is God in disasters in principle, though?  He's in the hearts of His children who are His hands to care, His feet to go where needed, His ears to listen, His voice to speak, and His mind to focus on the problems and fix them if God wills.  That's why we pray for God's will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, where it's always done.  The enthusiastic crowds of the triumphal entry of Jesus also only saw the short-term good of Christ (maybe they were a fan of His miracles like feeding the multitudes) and failed to see the big picture of His whole purpose: not to save from Rome but sin.

He clearly had bigger fish to fry and wasn't the conventional Messiah they had their hearts set on--deliverance from Roman tyranny and bondage.  He wasn't the Messiah they had in mind at all and didn't know what was meant to be by virtue of their ignorance of prophecy.  And they needed an attitude adjustment to God's plan and we must also ask ourselves if we do too. Israel had cried out "Hosanna! but failed to see what kind of Savior He really was, they missed the point!  Our salvation from sin is paramount in God's eyes--all else is circumference.  God's will was misconstrued. We don't fit God's will into our plans but our plans into God's will; we don't ask God for approval of our plans but seek His will.

It's a fact though that Israel needed redemption from Rome and they were in somewhat desperate straits due to subjugation; however, they failed to realize the seriousness of sin and how it offends God--this problem had priority.  John the Baptist started his ministry admonishing sinners to repent, Jesus did likewise inaugurating His kingdom. We also must realize what Jesus meant when He said that His kingdom is not of this world.  Our hope and reward are in heaven and "the LORD is our portion."  Nevertheless, God needed to immediately deal a death blow to sin and treat it as radically as possible--sending His Son do die.

We must see the big picture and take God at His Word, trusting in Him who holds the future.  The Bible says that where there is no vision, the people perish (cf. Prov. 29:18, KJV).  Take God's Word at face value!  We must focus on the main thing and keep the main thing the main thing, and get with the program!  It's clear the crowd missed the whole point of Christ's coming but we have the vantage point of history and the whole revelation of Scripture.

Let us all set aside our personal agendas and goals and give over ownership of our lives to Christ guiding and leading us His way and according to His perfect will.  We are seeking His kind of salvation:  eternal peace with God and deliverance from the bondage of sin, not to mention an eternal heritage.

The happiest, most fulfilled people are those who set aside their own goals and seek God's will for their life and labor for something bigger than themselves, living for and serving others, not themselves.  We live in light of eternity knowing our reward is not in this life (cf. Psalm 17:14) This is salvation:  giving over ownership of our lives to Christ as we submit to His Lordship and trust in His salvation alone.  Soli Deo Gloria!  

Defender Of Faith...

The UK's crown prince has a notion to change the motto of the sovereign from F.D. or, defender of THE faith, to defender of faith!  Instead of keeping the faith, it's keeping faith per se!  This disembowels the theology of the church because faith doesn't save, Christ does!  It's the object that matters, not the amount.  People can be sincerely wrong!  In other words, we don't have faith in faith but faith in Christ, even if it's mustard-seed-like.  Faith is seen as the channel that acquires it, grace the source that applies it, and Christ the means that accomplished it.

Faith is an abstract word that can more easily be seen than described.  People who observe us may proclaim:  "Now that's what I call faith!"   That's because true faith expresses itself, it has a testimony to share!   I'd rather exercise it any day than know its definition!  We see someone's faith by their deeds, not because they tell us they have faith.  Abraham was counted faithful because he obeyed. We must be obedient to the faith (cf. Acts 6:7; Romans 1:5; 16:26; 2 Thess. 1:8).  That implies there's no easy-believism and justifies lordship salvation.

Samuel told Saul, "To obey is better than sacrifice" (cf. 1 Sam. 15:22).   Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, "Only he who believes is obedient; only he who is obedient believes."  They are linked and the only test of faith is obedience, not ecstasy, religious experiences or highs, visions, or dreams, or private messages from God.  God doesn't want our achievements either, but our obedience!  Faith is the way to offer ourselves up as living sacrifices--We are not called to martyrdom and the more we suffer doesn't mean we are holier.  Therefore, "stand firm in the faith" (cf. Isaiah 7:9, HCSB).  As believers, we are primarily people "on a mission." 

What is faith then?  It is the gift of God that opens our hearts when the Spirit woos and quickens our spirit.  "This is the work of God, that you believe..."  It is composed of Fiducia, Assensus, and Notatia in Latin, and therefore it has a volitional, emotive, and cognitive element. The elements are confidence, trust, and knowledge.  We must believe the right creed concerning Christ without heresy.  But spreading the Word or the gospel message isn't disseminating a creed but presenting a Person.

We trust God with confidence and faithfulness as we proceed from faith to faith or grow in it.  As we are saved by faith, so ought we to continue in it (cf. Col. 2:6).  We progress in maturity from one faith to another (cf. Romans 1:17).  We may get a spiritual encounter that makes us "high" on the mountaintop but God won't leave us there, He tests our renewed faith as if by fire because it's more precious than silver or gold.  Do we walk by faith or by sight (cf. 2 Cor. 5:7)?  Once we have it we realize faith goes beyond reason, not against it. 

Saving faith is not storybook faith or mere head belief, but in the heart; it's not childish, but childlike, not simplistic, but simple!   Faith is not gullibility and doesn't commit intellectual suicide, but is based on evidence and sound reasoning, and intellectual integrity.  We are not called to believe despite the evidence nor to be irrational.  We have good, sound reason to believe and should defend the faith as Jude called it to contend for the faith (cf. Jude 3).  Faith without evidence or knowing why is blind faith!

Dead faith doesn't save, we must desire to live it out (cf. Romans 7:18) and show it to the world--to give it away!   Works validate faith and without them faith is suspect.  We are not saved by works, though; but not without them either!  The formula of the Reformers was that we are "saved by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone."  CAVEAT:  Faith that is easy isn't worth much; there must struggle to give it merit--it's a choice a decision of the will.

There are two vital, juxtaposed factors to faith we must never forget:  faithfulness and repentance.  Faith and faithfulness go together and one can distinguish them but not separate them, likewise with repentance--don't divorce them.   Therefore they say there is no genuine repentance without saving faith and vice versa, or we come to God by penitent faith and/or believing repentance.     Soli Deo Gloria!