You are currently browsing the category archive for the 'Faith' category.
Today I learnt one thing, which I would like to share (I’ll leave the context of it out though). Read the rest of this entry »
I thank God for keeping me and bringing through my past two papers. He has kept me and preserved me, especially my health during this period of time. On Monday, I had a bad sprained on my ankle. I could barely walk straight, but praise the Lord, for when my mum and I prayed for healing, he provided the means of healing that very night. Unexpectedly, I was freely given some traditional chinese medicine to apply over my sprain for a night and it was very effective. On Wednesday, which was the day of my 2nd paper, I could walk straight. Today (Friday), I can even rotate my ankle without any pain though there is still some stiffness. Thank God for his provision which is so unexpected!
Today, I would like to share what God has impressed upon my heart via a sermon. It is about the very essense of what faith really is.
It says in Hebrews 11:6 that ‘without faith, it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.’
O how many times we have tried to please God and not realise that we are not actually pleasing him for we have no faith!
This really is true for my life. In serving in my church’s worship ministry, so often, I have tried to please God in my own ways and means. Seeing the condition of hearts today in the church, I’m so desperate for God to work. I tried so hard, if there were just an opportunity for the life of God to be poured out, I would do anything, so that all would be able to be ministered by God once again. But week after week, it seems there is no change at all. I became disappointed in myself at times, not being able to understand why God couldn’t work in my service.
Reflecting back, I realised that I have tried to please Him, but I am not really pleasing Him because the faith element is absent. For the bible says, without faith, it is impossible to please God.
Conversely, only by faith can God be pleased. While listening to the sermon, I realised this truth. It suddenly became so clear that I can’t please God even if I want to. I can never be able to please God, but only by faith.
Hebrews 11:1 – ‘Now Faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen.’
The preacher says that this verse is the definition of faith along with Hebrews 11:6b that says ‘for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.’
The assurance of things hoped for corresponds with the belief of who God is and the conviction of things not seen corresponds with the belief that God is the rewarder.
The bottomline lies in the fact that faith is the belief not in self. For many times, the world has told us “Believe in yourself. You can do it!” That is NOT faith. Faith is not believing in self or in anything, but believing in God.
And it is the believe in God for who he is, for his very nature and the belief that he is a rewarder of those who seek him. I find it difficult to believe sometimes that God will reward us, but this is what the bible says. God is the rewarder. He is the giver. He gives. He rewards!
I thank God because this is absolutely what I needed to know right now. I can have assurance because God is God! I can have the conviction because what I ask for, if it is glorifying to God, will be given to me. I will be rewarded. If I ask for God to work in my church today, I can be certain that he will work because of who he is and because he rewards!
Only with faith, can I be pleasing to him. It is not what I have done that will please him, like improving my singing, reading more bible or becoming holier (if even this could be done). I cannot please him with my own strength because my strength glories myself. Our God wants the glory to be seen. He wants to show the world that He is who He is. He wants to show the world that He is God!
Therefore, let us stop trying to please him in outward service in doing the externals, but let us please Him with faith. Because without faith, whatever we do, even with the right heart, will be wasted away, because it is not pleasing to God.
Let us pray for our church in faith if we want to see God’s hand work. Let us start with prayer because prayer seeks God and seeking God for Him to do his work is pleasing to Him. We can be sure that he will work because he is the rewarder of our faith.
Repentence is recognizing your sin as sin, realizing its seriousness, being disgusted by it, and resoving to forsake it completely.
Faith is confident belief in God’s character and actions, trusting that He will redeem, justify, sanctify, and glorify through Christ those who believe Him; this faith results in a changed life in service to God.
Repentance comes at the very beginning of a person’s road to salvation, for no one can be saved until he recognizes his need to be saved, and no one can recognize this unless he sees his own sinfulness.
Faith is the instrument of our salvation, not the ground of our salvation. We are saved through our faith, not because of our faith. Both faith and repentance are the gift of God.
(Douglas Wilson, Omnibus III)
Recently, God has been teaching me from the Book of Hebrews about what faith is. Having known theoretically the meaning of faith, I thank God for placing a particular situation in my life to test me. Looking at it now from hindsight, I want to use it to testify of God’s goodness and faithfulness.
As work was piling up during the last 3 weeks, I became rather stressed up, not because I couldn’t meet the deadlines, but because I wanted to do by best for the assignment.
This Film and History module in which I’m taking requires me to hand in a 500 words essay fortnightly for 5 separate weeks. I did relatively well for my very 1st essay, scoring better than most of the cohort and I was very pleased with my results. I reckoned that if I could reproduce the quality of my 1st essay for the other 4 remaining ones, I would be able to do well. However, though I tried my very best later, spending a lot of time and effort into writing, my grades for the subsequent 2 essays were not very good. I became very discouraged and disappointed with my results which couldn’t reflect the effort I had put in. I began to question why I had tried so hard in the 1st place and wanted to give up working hard.
At that point of time, I thank God that he revealed the truth to me. I realised that the good grades that I was having didn’t come from me. It came from God. I wasn’t because I was capable and good that I achieved good grades in the first place. I realised that I got those good grades because it was a reward of hard work by the grace of God. To put it in the broader sense, no man can truly claim the fruit of his labour by how much he has toiled and laboured, for all blessings come from God and God is the rewarder and the giver of all things.
When I saw that, immediately, my disappointments vanished because I knew who was the one in control. What a wonderful thing to know that my grades are also in the hands of the living God. The rewards of my hard work are reaped, not because I deserve it, but because it is given as a form of grace from God.
I also brought to the light about an inner problem that is within me. Once again, I discovered that the stress was not there because of the work, but because of my inability to fulfil my desire, which is to do well. There is nothing wrong per se in desiring to do well in studies, but I am convinced that my desiring was not pleasing to God because God was not first place. I had desired good grades more than I have desired God and hence, I was working so hard to achieve them.
This brought me to the experience of what faith is. Faith was a desire just as in Hebrews 11:16 is says: “But as it is, they (all those who died in faith) desire a better country, that is a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.”
The problem was in my desire. Having desired a lesser thing which is good grades, and desiring God less, God’s glory and greatness is suppressed. When God is given less than first place, he is not given the glory and honour that he is due.
To me, this was an opportunity for an application of faith. I finally knew what it means to say ‘Seek ye First the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you’. It just means, “God, I have faith in you, because you are better and more precious in my life than my grades. I want you more than anything in my life.”
I finally understood what Matthew 5:6 – “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” means. Hungering and thirsting is desiring. When we desire righteousness in our lives, we shall be rewarded.
When God is desired, first and foremost, above all other things, all the rest shall be added unto us. God turned my heart’s desire towards him and truly he took care of the rest. For my subsequent essay, I was rewarded with a good grade as a testimony of his faithfulness. Thank you, Lord!
This is my desire, to honour You
Lord with all my heart, I worship You
all I have within me, I give You praise
all that I adore, is in You
Chorus
Lord I give You my heart
I give You my soul
I live for You alone
Every breathe that I take
Every moment I’m awake
Lord, have Your way in me
May God truly be our heart’s desire and may we always trust in him to provide for us.
