Romans 10:17-18 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. 18 But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.
How do we get faith. This verse says it comes by hearing. Actually, hearing in this circumstance means understanding. Faith comes from understanding and understanding from the word of God. This is why it is so important to study the word. Understanding of God through his word creates faith. The word is alive and we always find just what we need when we search for God in the pages of the Bible.
Many think it’s just an old book. But it is life, it’s love, it is the very essence of God’s character. Faith comes from learning about God in his written word. That written word will teach us that when we are born again, his Spirit will lead us and guide us. This is what it means to walk by faith, we allow God to lead us.
Let’s recap the week so far, faith is pure and cannot be mixed with doubt. We grow in faith through understanding of God’s word. We are justified by our faith. We trust that we will be saved by a just God. That belief is Faith.
Good Morning my God Focus friends. Today is Thursday, Week Two of Hiding The Word In Our Hearts. Week Two is all about Faith. Our verse this morning is Heb 11:1.
HEB 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Like I said on Sunday, it is seeing the outcome we are praying for even when things appear a different way. Faith is knowing God will do what he said, it is the substance or essence of what we hope for when there is no evidence. We walk by faith, this is what we do as children of God. We live each day, trusting God and believing for a good outcome. Some days things do not appear to be giving us a good outcome. But God is always there and will give us the strength that we need.
Trusting in God, will allow us to walk out our faith even when we do not see our way clear.
Good Morning my God Focus friends. Today is Tuesday, Week Two of Hiding The Word In Our Hearts. Week Two is all about Faith. Our verse this morning is Romans 5:1.
5:1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
Verse two goes on to say,
2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
Justification means that God declares that we are righteous, not because of who we are or what we can do, but because of Jesus Christ and his work on the cross. We have to have faith in God to take away those sins. That faith in the blood of Jesus gives us peace that goes beyond our understanding.
Good Morning my God Focus friends. Today is Monday, Week Two of Hiding The Word In Our Hearts. Week Two is all about Faith. Our verse this morning is Genesis 15:6. 6 And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness.
Gen 15:5-8 And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. 7 And he said unto him, I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it. 8 And he said, Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?
Abraham believed God. That statement of faith should be said about all of us. It doesn’t matter what we are facing, we need to believe God. His word is full of his promises. If we have faith we will believe God.
Abraham believed that God would give him many descendants from Isaac. So he boldly climbed the mountain to sacrifice Isaac. He spoke in faith to their servants. Stay here while the lad and I go and worship. We will return.
Did he not understand what God was asking? He understood fully, yet he said the Lord will provide the sacrifice. When the time came, God sent them a ram caught in a thicket by its horns.
God honors those who show that they believe in him. Those who walk by faith. Those who against all odds and against how things appear, simply believe God. Keep the faith, God’s children win.
The title of today’s episode: LOOKING FOR THE CLOUD
I want to encourage you today with a thought God gave me while driving home from work yesterday. The enemy will hold on with everything he has to try to destroy us. It’s like on TV you see the person hanging over the side of a building by their fingertips. They do everything in their power to hang on, but when the time comes that they can’t hold on, they fall. Satan too will have to let go, he knows he cannot hold on to us forever. The stronghold he may have built, will crumble if we turn it over to Jesus. The battle always gets the most intense right before the enemy falls.
We have to be encouraged and determined not to give up. When we turn it over to God, he will give us what we need for our battle-weary souls. It takes us being just as determined to hold onto God and his promises.
I Kgs 18:41-43 And Elijah said unto Ahab, Get thee up, eat and drink; for there is a sound of abundance of rain. 42 So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees, 43 And said to his servant, Go up now, look toward the sea. And he went up, and looked, and said, There is nothing. And he said, Go again seven times.
What if Elijah was like a lot of us. He sent his servant, and he came back and said there was not a cloud. Most of us would complain or say, “well I don’t know if there is any use to keep praying or not.” But Elijah was not shaken by how things appeared; he simply told him to go look again. This happened seven times.
He would pray and send his servant. I am sure by the sixth trip the servant was starting to wonder if Elijah was just trying to run him ragged. Elijah didn’t give up, but knew God would answer in his perfect time.
I Kgs 18:44 And it came to pass at the seventh time, that he said, Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man’s hand. And he said, Go up, say unto Ahab, Prepare thy chariot, and get thee down that the rain stop thee not.
The seventh time the servant saw a little cloud come up out of the sea. The cloud represents God’s presence. We have to hold on and keep praying until we see God’s hand in our situations.
Think about the tent of the tabernacle that was a place God designed, and the children of Israel built. It was a place of worship. When God’s presence would come down and rest upon the tabernacle, it would be overshadowed by a cloud. It is interesting how His presence shows up in a cloud.
We need to keep our focus on God and look for him in every situation. He is not far from us when we seek him. He will answer. Sometimes we have to pray several times before we see his hand, like Elijah. But we cannot give up. Breakthrough comes from persistence and prayer.
Keep looking up, don’t give up, you will reap great things if you keep looking for God’s hand in every situation.
Some teachers, if a particular lesson is hard to learn, will all their students to take an open book test. This means that they will be able to read and try to figure out the answers to the questions. It will not be all from memory. This is not considered cheating if the teacher allows it and everyone has a fair chance to seek the answers.
Matt 11:28-29 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
We were never meant to carry the burdens of life alone. This is Jesus’s invitation to enter a relationship with him; to learn about him. When we begin this process of walking by faith the enemy will try to stop us. He will give us every reason to turn around. He will fill our minds with questions.
However, he thinks we do not realize that our tests can be overcome, they are all open book tests. God’s word has the answer to life’s toughest problems. There is nothing that we cannot find the answer for in the word of God.
If we are sick, the word says he is our healer.
Psalm 103:2-3 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: 3 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;
The next few verses list more of the benefits of trusting God. But for time sake I only chose these two verses. The whole chapter is a good read.
The word says he forgives all our iniquities and heals us from all our diseases. We can depend on him to do what he says in this Word.
If we are grieving or heartbroken, he has promised to help us to heal.
Psalm 147:3 – He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.
If we are battle weary he will help us to continue to fight the good fight of faith.
Gal 6:9 – And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
He will help us fight our battles and give us strength to keep fighting. We just have to hold on and not allow the weariness of the battle to drag us down.
James 1:12 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
The key is enduring temptation or passing the test. Encouragement for passing the tests is in the word. They are open book tests.
He was know as Jehovah-Jireh to the Israelites. He was their provider of their needs. They wandered in the desert for forty years and their clothes and shoes didn’t wear out. He provided them shelter from the weather. Food fell from the sky for them to eat.
Psalm 23 is full of ways that God leads and guides us. In many ways, he provides for every need. It is a good place to start when wanting to learn more about God’s character.
People often read books and wonder what the author was thinking. But they never get an opportunity to meet them and ask. Jesus is waiting for our questions and he will provide the answers we seek.
Hebrews 12:1-2 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, 2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
We are to set aside the things that are holding us back and run our race. We must not allow the enemy to trip us up. We must focus on Jesus, who is the author and the one who completes our faith. Remember to look to him, study his word, and seek the answers. After all, our life is an open-book test.
Most Christian’s can look back on a time they did something wrong and wonder why? We cannot allow conviction of sin to become condemnation. There is a difference in conviction and condemnation. The Holy Ghost inside of us will nudge us when we have done wrong. This is so we can make a course correction.
The enemy will use condemnation to make us feel bad and unworthy of God’s compassion. He will tells us there is no use to try, because we will fail again. Satan will tempt us into sin and then use it to further beat us down.
God knows the Why of everything. There is not a question that he doesn’t have the answer. He sees the real version of us, the one we don’t show anyone, even ourselves. He sees the broken parts and He understands why they are broken. He also knows he can create a beautiful masterpiece out of our brokenness.
John 3:17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
Jesus had every right to condemn those who had broken God’s laws. He was perfect and he was God. But he came to show by example compassion and love. Jesus never told them how awful they were, he showed compassion. We may not understand the why of our circumstances, but God’s sees the big picture.
Look at the woman at the well. She had plenty of people condemning her. She couldn’t even draw water early in the morning like every other woman in the city. She had to go in the heat of the day to avoid the stares and whispers of judgment. All those people didn’t see her heart like Jesus did, they judged her by her actions. She had been married several times and was currently living with a man that she wasn’t married.
Jesus understood the Why of her circumstances. Maybe she married so many times because she was looking for financial stability. Maybe all of them were lazy bums. Maybe they all talked a good game but were narcissists. Maybe she was just wanting to be loved and none of them had offered real love to her. Maybe she believed the judgements of others that she was not a good person and she felt lucky that anyone would pay attention to her. God was there every step of the way and understood the circumstances that led to each bad decision. He sees all and understands the why. He sees how the enemy manipulated us to trap us into a place of misery. We don’t know the why; it is not our place to judge another person’s issues. We often do not even understand our own whys.
When we turn our lives over to Jesus he can fix the issues that cause the Why? He came to give us an abundant life. He came to set us free, not bury us in a bunch of legalism and religion. Jesus knows how hard it is to deal with religious people. After all the religious people of his day had him crucified.
We are going to have to deal with this type of person. But the only one we have to answer to is God above and he knows our hearts and minds. He knows the Why’s. Do not be discouraged by condemning, legalistic people. Look to Jesus and ask him to show you the why’s of your life. He can take all the bad choices and turn them around to leave a good outcome. Because he is God and that is what he does, he restores the broken to a place of wholeness.
GOD FOCUS--Psalm 34:3 O magnify the Lord with me.... 