Taking the Step Into Living Faith

The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you.  Genesis 12:1

   Faith, I believe is one of those words that we often take for granted.  It is a word that we think we know what the meaning of it is.  It is also something that we all think that we have, but do we really? 
The word faith is defined in the dictionary as "something that we believe in without proof, a complete trust."  It is the last part of the defination that gets us most of the time, "complete trust".  Yes, we believe in God.  Yes, we believe that the Bible is true.  Do we really have that complete trust that is the main component of faith?  Most of the time, no. 

  Take the verse at the beginning of this post.  God Himself spoke to Abram and told him to do something that was life changing.  God wanted Abram to leave everything that He had ever known and all of those who he loved and move to a distant land full of strange people.  Abram believed in God, he had faith in God but what Abram really had was that complete trust.  This is what God really desires of us.  He wants our complete trust.  He wants us to take our faith and through our complere trust in Him, turn it into a living faith. 

   So many times God, through that still small voice, places something on our heart that we are to do for Him but we lack that complete trust to do it.  We question ourselves.  We allow doubt to place a block between us and His plan.  We worry about what others will think.  Abram, I am sure, had questions.  I believe that he even had doubts.  However, Abram had that complete trust.  He picked up everything that he owned and moved his family hundreds and hundreds of miles away.

  If you feel that pull on your heartstrings to do something life changing, something that could turn your world upside down, don't allow worry and doubt to enter into the equation.  Take your faith and let it become complete trust.  Then you will be able to step out into your living faith and do what God has planned for you.  Your friends may not get it.  Your family may not understand.  Some may even think you are insane, but when you turn your faith into complete trust, God will bless you and make your work fruitful for His kingdom. 
 

Forgive and Forget

As part of my daily Bible reading, I read the letter from the Apostle Paul to his friend Philemon today. This is a very short book, only 25 verses, but is has alot to say. If you have never read it, I suggest that you do. In this letter, Paul is pleading with Philemon to forgive the runaway slave, Onesimus. You see, Onesimus belonged to Philemon and had stolen some items fr...

om his master and ran away. Ending up in Rome, Onesimus later crossed paths with Paul who was also in Rome under house arrest. Onesimus, under the ministry of Paul, became another type of servant. He became a servant of Christ. Onesimus accepted Jesus and even began to help Paul spread the Good News. But Paul knew that he could not allow Onesimus to stay with him in Rome. The right thing to do was to send Onesimus back to Philemon. At that time under Roman law, when a slave ran away, the master had the right to beat or even kill the runaway servant. This is when Paul wrote this letter. He ask Philemon to forgive Onesimus and to take him back. Through this letter, Paul was teaching Philemon, and even us, the importance of forgiveness. When we are wronged, no matter how big or even how small, we must demonstrate God's love and forgive the offender. As followers of Jesus Christ, we must not hold unforgiveness in our hearts. We need to follow the example of Philemon in this matter. Not only did he take Onesimus back and forgave him but went the extra step and granted Onesimus his freedom. This extra step allowed Onesimus to bring many more souls into the Kingdom. Today, I am asking you to take that extra step. Do not just forgive those who wronged you, but invite them back into your life and sow the love of Christ into them. Your extra step may just start a chain of events to causes someone to come to know Jesus.