Good morning, good day and happy Thursday. Did you know that Thursday is named after Thor, the Norse God of thunder, hence Thor’s Day or Thursday…so its like a superhero day...huh. I hope you all had great days yesterday and that God spoke loud and clear into your life. Our church is going through a study right now called, Whisper, about learning to hear and better discern when and how God speaks to us. I firmly believe that God is always speaking to us in one way or another but the real question is, are we listening?
Sometimes I’ll be writing the 5MC and Margie will walk in with this big thought or idea and a few minutes into it I’ll actually start hearing her. She was talking the whole time, she had a point for me and it made great sense, but I was so distracted by what was in front of me that I hadn’t even heard her. It’s the same with God. I think He is always speaking to us but we are usually so busy in ourselves that we just don’t hear him. Slow down today, be still, be quiet and listen for Him. Call out to him and pray what Samuel did when he first encountered the voice of God in 1 Sam. 3:10, “speak Lord for your servant is listening.” God will not disappoint you.
Try this today (it will drive you mad the first few times!) During your day go out of your way to find one of the most quiet places you can. No noise, no people, no cell phone, no texts, no facebook, no email. (I know I’ve already lost some of you…) Sit there in silence for a full 5 minutes. You can pray, think, or just let your mind go blank. A full 5 minutes. It sounds kinda crazy but when I do this I close my eyes and picture a field completely covered in snow. A landscape blanketed in white. Heavy snow is falling, silently obscuring the sky in pure white. The sky and the Earth melt together. The whole scene is utterly pure white, nothing but white, devoid of all color. And it’s so quiet, the silence pierces my soul. It’s very vivid in my mind and it takes me there. When I quiet my spirit and become still I can hear God speak.
Again, the first few times you do this, 5 minutes is going to feel like an hour. Our lives have become so busy and so hectic that we have completely forgotten what it means to just sit in silence. We need to desperately re-learn this in order to better hear God speak. Psalms 46:10, “Be still and know that I am God.”
Today we are looking closer at Romans chapter 4. It deals with faith, something I think we all wish we had more of. Romans 4 mentions the word faith 11 times. When God says something once its important. When he says it twice, listen very, very closely. And well, when He says something 11 times in one chapter, well, you get it, it's BIG. He specifically uses 2 old testament figures as examples. Abraham that lived under no Mosaic law and then David that did live under Mosaiac law. Different guys, different times but one thing in common, great faith.
So we mentioned faith yesterday in the 5MC, in fact it was the 5th part of the verse we broke down, Romans 3:23-24. ‘To be received by faith’. Here’s what I wrote yesterday on it:
5) “to be received by faith” You can only get the saving grace of Jesus one way, faith. You have to believe. You can’t wish it, you can’t earn it, you can’t buy it, you can’t learn it from a book. It’s really just that simple. Believe in Jesus. Receive Him by faith.
So faith is mentioned in a big way in chapter 3, tying together a major verse that describes the theological basis for Christianity. In the following chapter God mentions it 11 times. This is important to God, what is He trying to tell us about faith?
Here’s a few definitions of Faith I randomly pulled off Google:
> complete trust and belief in someone or something.
> strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof.
> belief and trust in and loyalty to God
> firm belief in something for which there is no proof
> something that is believed especially with strong conviction
Notice that in every one there is one common word, belief. Even the secular world can nail down faith, its about one thing, belief. Belief that God is who He says He is. Belief that His Word is true, living and breathed into existence by Him. Belief that Jesus is the son of God and he came to Earth and lived, died and rose again 3 days later. Belief that the Holy Spirit lives inside of every follower of Christ. Belief that those that give their lives to Christ will have a home in heaven. Belief.
So how do you get faith? Faith is not really an act but an attitude. You might be required to make an action due to your faith, but the decision is based on the attitude of faith first. The faith must be present first. The attitude of faith will power your decisions, your actions and ultimately the direction of your life. Faith guides the steps of the faithful. Faith comes through believing.
There comes a time in our lives where I hope we will all hear the gospel of Jesus Christ presented to us. We are told about the powerful name of Jesus and that He died and was resurrected after 3 days to conquer the death of our sin once and for all. When we hear this message we are placed in a peculiar position. What do you do with it? Do you think its real? Do you think it actually happened. Or better yet, do you believe it? There’s that word again, believe. It comes down to the attitude of belief. Faith IS believing. Will you surrender your own understanding of life and just let belief consume you? It’s a decision we all must make, believe in Jesus or not. Accept Him as our Savior in faith or choose not to believe. Here’s an ironic story about faith. I heard of a conversation between a Christian and an atheist. Of course, it was about whether or not God was real. The atheist of course said there was no God and the Christian said there was. A third guy walked up and said, “you know you guys both believe something with passion but neither of you can really personally prove it, so you’re both basing your beliefs on faith.” You see even the atheist had to use faith. He had to choose to believe.
So if you have faith how do you grow in it? I’ve heard it said that faith is like a muscle, the more you use it the stronger it gets. That is so absolutely true. God gives us all a measure of faith to believe in Him and then what you do with it after that is up to you. We see people in God’s Word that did great things with their faith, building arks, slaying giants, splitting seas, healing the blind and even raising the dead. We also see of people that did so little with their faith, failing God and themselves. So how do some achieve great faith and others cannot?
We’re back to that word, believe. Your belief in God starts out small as you begin your walk. As you progress in your walk, God will begin giving you small tasks to achieve good works for Him. As you complete these He will reveal himself and His goodness and you will be affirmed in your actions. The next time the request from God will be bigger and it will require more of you. Because of your increased faith you will comply and God will do even bigger things in your life. This process will continue and as a result your faith will grow as your belief in God’s plan for your life grows.
I have personally seen this come to fruition in my own life. When I was a new Christian my faith was small. As I’ve chased after Christ and followed His plan, it has grown as I’ve learned to surrender my plans based on my thoughts and rely on His. The growth and increased faith from the Lord has been amazing. Even to the point when God called us to sell our home, sell all our stuff in an estate sell and move to Maui to serve. This request of course took all the faith we had, but our walk with Christ had provided all the faith that we needed. After that journey there is not much God could ask of us today that we would not do. Faith. It all starts in the heart and grows from one small seed….belief.
Faith is a really deep subject and I could go one forever but ultimately, it’s a personal journey that is based on a personal decision. You make an internal choice, believe or don’t believe. I hope you have chosen to start out your belief with trusting in Jesus Christ as your personal savior. If you have never done this or are unsure of what that even means, feel free to contact me and I will be happy to grab some coffee with you and discuss more.
The journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step and the first step to a great life is faith in God.
May God bless your personal time in His Word this morning and may the message it brought enrich your walk today. Whatever that message may be, share it with others.
Share the Love.
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