THE EVIDENCE OF FAITH
THE EVIDENCE OF FAITH
Faith and hope go together; and the same things that are the object of our hope are the object of our faith. It is a firm persuasion and expectation that God will perform all that he has promised to us in Christ; and this persuasion is so strong that it gives the soul a kind of possession and present fruition of those things, gives them a subsistence in the soul, by the first-fruits and foretastes of them: so that believers in the exercise of faith are filled with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
When we put forth any sort of effort to accomplish something and nothing comes of it, we are ready to jettison the whole idea and turn to something entirely different. For example, when someone become ill, the doctor diagnoses the problem and prescribes some medicine; then, such go and pay the huge bill for the medicine. After such have tried it for a while, s/he go back to the doctor and say, doctor, look, I don’t see any benefits coming from this medicine. Can you prescribe something else for me? And, sometimes he does. The businessman soon learns that if one method doesn’t make money, he must try something else.
Whatever effort we put forth, we always expect to see something good come from it. We believe faith in our hearts is going to produce something beneficial and worthwhile. If my faith is a dormant, lifeless thing I would immediately conclude there is not much value in having it. I might even wonder why God requires faith if it doesn’t produce any lasting results. The fact is, real faith does produce wonderful results. James affirms this truth in the second chapter of his great epistle. He goes back to Abraham and Rahab to prove his point. Their faith was manifested by their good works. As we think about the practical aspects of Christianity and what it means to be a Christian, we can easily see that faith in our hearts must have something on the outside that goes along with it. Unless there is something resulting from our faith, faith is not very meaningful. It is certainly not the kind of faith God wants His people to have.
By tomorrow, we shall be looking at the Obedience of Faith. Good morning.
Word Affirmation: And the LORD shall make ME the HEAD, and not the tail; and I shall be ABOVE only, and I shall not be beneath - Deuteronomy 28:13.
“Real faith does produce wonderful results”
MIND THIS
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