Our Faith WILL Be Tested
This must be an important message for someone today, because I had something totally different in mind, but kept getting phone calls every time I tried to write it, and then the power even went off for no apparent reason. As it kept getting later and later, I even considered not answering the phone, but it was the last phone call that finally revealed what the LORD wanted me to write about today.
We often talk about how important faith is in our lives as Christians and we know it is impossible to please the Lord without it, and that it requires us to believe what we have no earthly reason to believe, but I think we forget that without tests, trials and reason to doubt, there is NO faith. Just like there’s no virtue if there’s no temptation, if we don’t have to face and deal with situations and circumstances that test our faith or require us to exercise it, faith is not required or demonstrated. And one thing we must be prepared for as Christians and women standing for the restoration of our marriages, is that the Lord WILL test our faith, and I don’t believe He’ll restore our marriages unless we demonstrate the faith required to stand for them NO MATTER WHAT WE SEE AND HEAR.
The following passages of scripture demonstrate how important faith is to us as Christians, and how miraculously the Lord will work on behalf of those who stand strong and live with unshakeable faith in His word:
2 Corinthians 13
4 For to be sure, he was crucified in weakness, yet he lives by God’s power. Likewise, we are weak in him, yet by God’s power we will live with him to serve you.
5 Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?
6 And I trust that you will discover that we have not failed the test.
7 Now we pray to God that you will not do anything wrong. Not that people will see that we have stood the test but that you will do what is right even though we may seem to have failed.
8 For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth.
Titus 1
13 This testimony is true. Therefore, rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith
14 and will pay no attention to Jewish myths or to the commands of those who reject the truth.
15 To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted.
16 They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.
Hebrews 3 (An excellent chapter about faith)
4 For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything.
5 Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house, testifying to what would be said in the future.
6 But Christ is faithful as a son over God’s house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.
Hebrews 11 (Another excellent chapter about faith)
17 By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son,
18 even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.”
19 Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.
23 By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.
24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.
25 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time.
26 He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.
27 By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible.
28 By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.
29 By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.
30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days.
31 By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.
32 And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets,
33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions,
34 quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.
Romans 4
3 What does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
13 It was not through law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.
18 Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”
19 Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead.
20 Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God,
21 being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.
22 This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.”
Hebrews 11
8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.
9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.
10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
As we read the above passages, we need to ask the Lord to help us to fully understand them and ask Him to increase our faith so that we can walk and live in the awesome power of faith they demonstrate. When the trials and tests come our way, when the enemy brings everything he can against us to cause us to doubt the power and promises of our Lord and Savior, we need to remember the following verses in James 1
2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds,
3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.
4 Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.
6 But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.
7 That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord;
8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.
And NEVER forget what Hebrews 10:38 tells us, which is But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him.”