Friday, April 5, 2013
Have you ever been in a situation where you felt pressured by something in life an you just needed God to come through for you? Maybe it was something in a relationship, or financial, or even a physical healing. If so, then this is for you. Always remember, and say out loud to yourself as often as you can, we serve a very great God! Hebrews 11 tells us faith is what we feel when we are expecting something, that eager anticipation, or elpis in the Greek (verse 1). This is defined as believing that there is a God and that He is on our side to do us good (verse 6). James 2 tells us that faith without works is dead, which I interpret to mean what I am acting like is what I really believe. If I am having trouble maintaining that feeling of eager anticipation, and my actions and my beliefs are not the same, then likely I am having difficulty with my faith. Some may express this as “wavering”. In the days of the Exodus they protested to Moses that he must have brought them out into the desert to die. Doesn’t sound like they thought God was on their side, right? Or that they eagerly anticipated something good? So how do we move towards having faith, that trust in God to be on our side?
Paul said that the change in us is what we say with our mouth and believe in our heart (Romans 8:8-10). In this same area he quotes Moses who said the power was in our mouth and in our heart. In verse 17 he says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. The word for word here is rhema in the Greek and means human utterance. Back to our question: how can we move towards faith if we feel ourselves struggling? Talk out loud to ourselves, saying the good things of God. Say the scriptures to ourselves. Sing a song that encourages us. Pray in the spirit. In short, hear through our ears things that build up our faith, and we can do that from our own mouth.
Prayer
Father, thank you for being the King. Please help me today to say Your good things out loud where I and others can hear them. Help me to choose to listen to the good. Help me to say the good. And please give these same things to all who struggle today with believing You are on their side. In Jesus name. Amen.