Faith and Works

Well I had a few days away from blogging and although I would love to say I took those days to relax, unfortunately the reality is I have been working really crazy hours and by the time I get home and even contemplate adding to my blog, its well past midnight.

Anyhow...today I wanted to talk about Faith and Works and the significance of each. Think of a husband and wife. The husband can daily say to his wife "I love you", but if he then went out with other women every night, never did anything his wife asked of him and generally was rude to her in his actions, do you think his wife would really believe his words?

This is the same in our walk with Christ. It says in James 2:20 -

How foolish! Can’t you see that faith without good deeds is useless?

This is exactly the point of my post today. Works and faith go hand in hand. You cannot truly have one without the other. The day I gave my life to Christ, I made a choice that I wasnt only going to profess with my lips that Jesus is my Lord and Saviour, but I also decided to live a life according to God's will, a life that fulfills His purpose and is pleasing to our Lord.When we give our hearts to Christ, our works must continually reflect our faith. One of the first things we must realise when we are born again is we are renewed, we must separate ourselves from this world. We must demonstrate we are different.

This is essential if we want to lay claim to the many promises throughout the Bible also.We must have faith in the word of God and our lives must live up to that. But our lives cannot just be about works, there must be a strong faith behind it. Romans 3:20 states -

Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.

This refers to the fact that even if you live a life where you obey the law, care for others, help the needy and so forth, if you have no faith in God, you will still not make it to heaven. We must live a life where we have a strong faith in God and works that demonstrate that faith.

But thats all fine to write down here, but how willing would you really be to pack up and leave you home, your family, your current position? There are many example of this throughout the Bible, where God calls people to just up and leave there current position to serve Him. Genesis 12:1-3 says -

The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you.
"I will make you into a great nation
       and I will bless you;
       I will make your name great,
       and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
       and whoever curses you I will curse;
       and all peoples on earth
       will be blessed through you."

At this point Abraham was 75 years old and he is told to leave his home to go to the place God calls him to. I dont know about you, but when Im 75 years old, I would prefer to stay sitting in my rocking chair and watch TV. But a great faith listens to the will of God, the desires of His heart and acts accordingly!

But there is a great promise awaiting us when we serve God as is his purpose for our lives. There is an example of this in Genesis 15:1 where it says -

Some time later, the Lord spoke to Abram in a vision and said to him, “Do not be afraid, Abram, for I will protect you, and your reward will be great.”

Abraham was faithful in serving God and he was rewarded in amazing ways! And this isnt the only example in the Bible where someones faith was rewarded greatly. There are many others such as Noah. Joseph and Job amongst others.

Another important thing is that we must acknowledge God's perfect timing in everything. This plays a major part in our faith. Psalm 118:8 says -

It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in people.

When things are not happening and we think there is no movement from God, we try to push things along ourselves. By faith we must learn to wait upon God's timing and path to His promises. We must remember his plan is perfect, always flawless! But in those instances where things go wrong, we must accept responsibility since it is no doubt going to be due to the fact we drifted off God's track, and the path we took wasnt part of Gods plans.

But again its easy to say all this, but how long are we really willing to wait to see God move in our circumstances? 1 year? 5 years? 50 years. Then there is the case where we look upon the promises and laugh at the possibility, just as Abraham in Genesis 17:17 -

Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, "Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?"

But God doesnt understand why we laugh, as he will always see us through any trial, for his ability is limitless. We just need to trust in His word and be patient for His promises. Just look at how long Abraham had to wait for the promise of a son. This is highlighted in Hebrews 11:11 -

By faith Abraham, even though he was past age—and Sarah herself was barren—was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise.

God will see us through anything...we just need to have faith in Christ our savior. Its easy to have praise for God when things are going well, but how about when things are not so great and we are waiting. But what we must remember is, when we look back over our past circumstances, we see a great testimony of the great power of God and how he has moved in our lives. Christ will always see us through, by His precious blood we have the power to keep on going.  All we need to do is have faith and live as God has called us.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. (Matt 16:24)