Tag Archives: faith

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A Spiritual Vacation or a Spiritual Victory

A Calling to Conquer

SYNOPSIS: God always leads us in triumph. There is always more territory he has destined us conquer. There are always more enemies he has empowered us to defeat. And while a part of you may yearn to sit back and relax, the glory of what it means to be Christian is to march forward as more than a conqueror. And why would we not embrace our calling to conquer? We have the promise of God that he himself will drive out our enemies.

The Journey // Focus: Joshua 13:1,6

When Joshua was an old man, the Lord said to him, “You are growing old, and much land remains to be conquered.… “I myself will drive these people out of the land ahead of the Israelites.”

We will rest when we get to heaven. Until then, there is still work to be done. I am sorry to disappoint you if you were thinking of your Christianity as a spiritual vacation. It is not; it is a spiritual victory. Of course there are ebbs and flows in the journey of faith, but there will always be more promises to possess, territory to claim, enemies to overcome and victories to secure.

Thus it will always be. That is the ongoing saga of redemptive history. While God brings us through challenges and gives us victory over our enemies, the end has yet to be written. Of course, the outcome has been predetermined, but it is still in the making. That is why we say he leads us from victory to victory.

While the promises of God are as good as done, and even though the outcome has been predetermined, that never means the believer gets to sit back and rest on their laurels. God’s rest is not a piece of geography—not at this point, anyway—it is a spiritual condition of triumph. That triumph is experienced in the advance of his kingdom through our lives. Through the work that he has given us to do, we are victorious—and that is what propels us along our journey of joyful rest.

That is evident in the story of Joshua 13. General Joshua has been one of history’s most brilliant military strategist. He has won conquest after conquest against enemies that were fiercer, stronger, better equipped and more battle hardened than Israel’s army. Moreover, God was on their side, and city after city fell into Israel’s hands. But after a long period under Joshua, the time had come for others to lead in the remaining battles.

Yes, battles remained. Get used to it! In preparation for the end of his career, God told Joshua to divide the land between the twelve tribes. He was to assign specific geographical territory to each tribe, even though some of it was yet to be firmly in Israel’s possession. So why divide the land between the tribes before Israel had conquered it?

For one thing, Joshua was advancing in years and the day of his death was looming. The task would not be complete by the time of his passing. Furthermore, there would not be a singular leader over Israel for the next four hundred years as they continued to possess and settle the land, so God assigned Joshua the task of allotting the land among Israel’s tribes, clans and families.

But while that is the practical reason for counting their chickens before they hatched, there was also a faith reason. God was on their side, and he would see to it that the land came under their possession. While they would have to work and war to possess it, we are told by God, “I myself will drive these people out of the land ahead of the Israelites.” God’s promise to work on Israel’s behalf was so certain, that the division of the land could be made even before it was conquered. God’s promise is as good as done. God was asking Israel through this division of land to picture what he had promised. Again, the faith principle is that we need to picture what we want to possess.

So what is the point? Simply this: God always leads us in triumph. There is always more territory to conquer. There are always more enemies to defeat. And while a part of you may yearn to sit back and relax, the glory of what it means to be Christian is to march forward as more than a conqueror. And why would we not embrace our calling to conquer? We have the promise of God that he himself will drive out our enemies.

Yes, the time will come for rest soon enough. In the meantime: onward toward yet another predetermined victory.

Going Deeper: Memorize Romans 8:37-39, “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

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What Makes You Irresistible To God?

Faith That Walks In Trust

SYNOPSIS: Between the journey of faith and the destination of faith—faith obeys. It grits out a determined obedience in a faithful direction, by believing, trusting, and expecting that there is no more important issue in this life than to follow the call and carry out the commands of God. And it does so with great delight—not because it has to obey, but because it wants to serve. As J.R.R. Tolkien said, “In the last resort, faith is an act of will, inspired by love.”

Project 52 – Weekly Scripture Memory // Hebrews 11:6

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

What is faith? In its simplest form, it is belief. Yet it is more that mere intellectual assent, because the Bibles tells us, “Even the demons believe—and tremble!” (James 2:19) Belief is important, but it is only the beginning; belief begins the journey of trust.

Faith that walks in trust says, “I will put my complete confidence in God and his promises—even though I may not see any evidence at this point that those promises will be fulfilled.” In fact, sometimes the evidence even seems contrary to the promises of God. But faith trusts anyway. It is sure that what is hoped for, that is, what God has promised, will come to pass, relying on that certainty as the evidence of faith itself. (Hebrews 11:1) Aquinas wrote,

Faith has to do with things that are not seen and hope with things that are not at hand. 

Trusting faith is expectant faith. It believes that God rewards. It believes that at the end of the day, the earnest journey of faith will be met with the eternal joy of God—both the joy that is revealed in the smile of God at our faithfulness (itself, the biggest and best reward of all) and the joy that is felt as the crown of righteousness (along with all the other tangible wonders of eternity awarded in that moment) is placed upon the head of the faithful.

In the meantime—in those steps taken between the journey of faith and the destination of faith—faith obeys. It grits out a long obedience in a faithful direction, believing, trusting, and expecting that there is no more important issue in this life than to follow the call and carry out the commands of God. And it does so with great delight—not because it has to, but because it wants to. As J.R.R. Tolkien said, “In the last resort, faith is an act of will, inspired by love.”

You see, faith, more than anything else, is both focused on and fueled by relationship with Almighty God himself. It is not the results of faith that drives the faithful, it is the relationship experienced along the way that is most important. That is the very heart of Hebrews 11, the greatest chapter in the Bible on the lives of the faithful. None of them saw God’s promise tangibly fulfilled in this life, but they were commended for their faith because they kept a penetrating focus on the next world as the real object of their journey. (Hebrews 11:13, 39-40) That is why God was pleased with them. (Hebrews 11:16)

You, too, can join that illustrious list of God-pleasers if you will live by faith—believing, trusting, expectant, obedient, God-focused faith.

He finds that irresistible!

To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible. ~Thomas Aquinas

Reflect & Apply:If it is impossible to please God without faith, then the most important investment of your life’s energies and resources will be in nurturing your faith. Not always an easy task, but a worthy one. Take a moment to consider what Gordon McDonald wrote about faith: “To trust in spite of the look of being forsaken, to keep crying out into the vast, whence comes no returning voice, and where seems no hearing; to see the machinery of the world pauselessly grinding on as if self-moved, caring for no life, nor shifting a hairbreadth for all entreaty, and yet believe that God is awake and utterly loving; to desire nothing but what comes meant for us from His hand; to wait patiently, ready to die of hunger, fearing only lest faith should fail—such is the victory that overcomes the world, such is faith indeed.”

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An Opportunity To Distinguish Yourself

ThanksLiving: 365 Days of Gratitude

If you are facing a back-against-the-wall situation in your life today, you have the perfect opportunity to exhibit faith in the face of it. Faith is an investment of trust in the sufficiency of God to take care of you. The return on your investment is up to God, but to this point, he has a 100% track record of delivering a yield of ever-increasing value in response to faith. Step out in faith, my friend, and you too, like the heroes of the Bible, will earn your spiritual bona fides.

Going Deep // Focus: 1 Chronicles 10:11-12

When all the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, all their valiant men went and took the bodies of Saul and his sons and brought them to Jabesh. Then they buried their bones under the great tree in Jabesh, and they fasted seven days.

You and I never want to have our backs against the wall, but on the other hand, isn’t a backs-against-the-wall circumstance usually the very place where our natural lives are infused with supernatural empowerment that enable us to do great exploits for God? We normally don’t develop outstanding testimonies of faith in the good times. Those stories come out of desperation and darkness. When we are pressed into knowing no helper but God is when we, well, know God. As someone has rightly pointed out, you will never know that Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have.

In this sad story, Israel’s arch nemesis, the Philistines, have defeated the army of Saul. An enemy archer wounded the king, and fearing that he will be captured, and tortured in the most unspeakable way, he pleads with his armor bearer to take his life. When the loyal soldier refuses, Saul falls on his own sword, and the glory of Israel is snuffed out. The Philistines overrun the rest of the army, Saul’s sons, including the heroic Jonathan, are also killed, and God’s people are put to flight.

And true to his fears, the Philistines mutilate Saul’s body, and then abuse his honor by putting it on display in the temple of their god:

They stripped him and took his head and his armor, and sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines to proclaim the news among their idols and their people. They put his armor in the temple of their gods and hung up his head in the temple of Dagon. (1 Chronicles 10:9-10)

Israel is at a low point, and all the people in the nearby towns flee in fear to escape similar brutality at the hands of this cold-blooded enemy. All—except some incredibly courageous men from the town of Jabesh Gilead. On that dark and desperate day, we are told that they put together their special forces and marched right into the temple of Dagon to recover the bodies of King Saul and his sons. They brought them back to Israel, gave them a proper burial, and mourned their loss for a number of days that was appropriate in that culture. Later, when David was anointed king, he singled these brave men out for special recognition:

When David was told that it was the men from Jabesh Gilead who had buried Saul, he sent messengers to them to say to them, “The Lord bless you for showing this kindness to Saul your master by burying him. May the Lord now show you kindness and faithfulness, and I too will show you the same favor because you have done this. Now then, be strong and brave, for Saul your master is dead, and the people of Judah have anointed me king over them. (2 Samuel 2:3-7)

What inspired the bravery of these warriors from Jabesh Gilead? Were they just naturally courageous fighters? Did they have such love for the Lord or such hatred for the Philistines, or both, that they acted with such bold defiance in the face of such an atrocity? We don’t know for sure, but what we do know is that their backs were against the proverbial wall, and they acted in faith. And in that act, they “made their bones!”

Courage isn’t the lack of fear, it is the presence of faith. Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, the famed American pilot in World War I and recipient of the Medal of Honor, said,

Courage is doing what you are afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you are scared.

I would propose that you could drop the word “faith” in the place of “courage” and it would be just as true.

If you are facing a back-against-the-wall situation in your life today, you have the perfect opportunity to exhibit faith in the face of it. Faith is an investment of trust in the sufficiency of God to take care of you. The return on your investment is up to God, but up to this point, he has a 100% track record of delivering a yield of ever-increasing value in response to faith.

Step out in faith, my friend, and you too, like the men of Jabesh Gilead, will earn your spiritual bona fides.

Going Deeper With God: You may not be facing something as dramatic as a Philistine today, but you will likely face an enemy of God in the small details of your Christian walk: an opportunity to fudge on a report, cut a corner in your job, gossip about someone, etc. Show courage instead by choosing what faith would have you to do. Do that in the small matters, and then when the big enemies show up, you will be more prepared to exhibit Jabesh Gilead type courage.

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Being God’s Friend

Read Romans 4

“God’s promise of eternal life is received through the same kind of faith demonstrated by Abraham, who believed in the God who resurrects the dead and creates new things out of nothing.”
(Romans 4:16)

Food For Thought… I don’t know if you’ve done much thinking about Abraham, but what a true hero of the faith! Here’s a guy who was saved by faith even before there was a Bible or the Law or Christ’s death and resurrection or a community of faith. God appeared to Abraham one day—we’re not even sure if he’d had any previous interaction with God or if this was simply an out of the blue encounter—and Abraham said, “Okay God—I’m on board. What’s next?”

Abraham then went on a life-long journey with God in which he became known as a friend of God—a pretty cool designation, I’d say—and the father of God’s people.

Obviously, Abraham was a very special man, and the Bible holds him up as an example to emulate for believers like you and me. We all ought to be Abraham-like in the spiritual dimension of our lives.

But is that even possible? Is there even the smallest chance that I can develop that same kind of Abraham-like relationship with God? Can I attain a walk with God that will be an Abraham-like example to others? And if it’s possible, then how?

Well, it is possible! Paul goes on to say in verse 24, “God will count us righteous too if we believe in him who raised from the dead this Jesus who died for our sins and was raised to make us right with God.”

How can we attain friendship with God? I can sum up the “how” in two words: Faith and hope—technically, that’s three words, but work with me!

First, you’ve got to make resurrection the foundation of your faith.

That’s what Abraham did! Romans 4:17 says, “Abraham believed in the God who brings back the dead to life.” Abraham was a little ahead of his time—like a few thousand years—but he believed in the God of the resurrection. What Paul is referring to here is the story of God’s call to Abraham to sacrifice his only son Isaac on the altar (you can read the story in Genesis 22), and Abraham’s willingness to actually go through with it. Why would Abraham be willing to do such a thing? Because he had faith in the God of the resurrection—the God who could, and would, raise Isaac back to life again.

The truth is, to have that kind of Abraham-like faith, you and I have to have that same Abraham-like level of trust in the God of the resurrection. If you don’t have a foundational and resolute belief in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, and his promise to resurrect you from the dead, your faith will not only not develop to Abraham-like proportions, it will be meaningless. Paul teaches us in I Corinthians 15:14, “If Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty.”

In other words, if we have no faith in the God of the resurrection, then I am wasting my energy writing this blog…and you’re wasting your time reading it…and you’ll never come close to living an Abraham-like life of faith. But the historical fact of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead proves that God is who he said he is and will fulfill what he has promised to do. And the faith you place in the God who resurrects the dead will empower you to live the kind of God-honoring faith that Abraham had.

Second, you’ve got to claim resurrection as the basis of your hope.

That, too, is what Abraham did. Romans 4:18 tells us that “even when there was no reason for hope, Abraham kept on hoping”…believing in God’s promises that one day he would be the father of many nations when his only son, through whom his lineage would continue, was about to die. In other words, Abraham didn’t let his circumstances dominate his life; he allowed God’s promises to dictate his life. Abraham believed that if Isaac was going to die on the altar, God would raise him to life. That was his hope.

I don’t know if you’ve ever thought about this, but the exercise of that kind of hope is arguably the most powerful discipline you can engage as a believer. Count Bismarck said, “Without the hope of [Christian resurrection], this life is not worth the effort of getting dressed in the morning.” He was right! Christian hope is that important, and that powerful.

Karl Marx proclaimed that religious hope is the opiate of the people. But Hebrews 6:19 says, “We have this hope as an anchor of the soul, firm and secure.” And Paul writes in Romans 5:5 that this “hope does not disappoint us!”

Do you practice hope? I’m not talking about the breezy kind of optimism that Mary Martin sang about in South Pacific when she crooned, “I’m stuck like a dope with a thing called hope.” I’m talking about the exercise of hope that declares that you are choosing to believe in God’s promises, not just in spite of the evidence, but in scorn of the consequences. We’ve been called to practice that kind of hope.

Faith, hope and the resurrection…that was Abraham’s secret. I have faith that it will be your secret too…at least I hope so!

Prayer… Lord, I believe! I believe in you. I believe in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. I believe that his resurrection guarantees my resurrection from the dead. In you I have placed my faith and in you I have put my hope. My prayer is that the exercise of my faith and the practice of my hope will lead to the kind of relationship Abraham had with you—he was your friend, God. That’s what I want!

One more thing… “For a mere legend about Christ’s resurrection to have gained circulation and to have had the impact it had without one shred of basis in fact, is [unbelievable].” —William F. Albright