Exercising Faith

While the Holy Spirit produces certain attitudes, or fruit in our lives, these attitudes only become automatic as a result of repetition.   Just as developing consistency shooting a basketball requires exercising certain muscles, learning to be consistently joyful requires learning to appreciate the things that happen in our lives.  I Thessalonians 5:18 commands, “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”  It is God’s will that we learn to be thankful, to appreciate what he does in our lives, so if we are not thankful, we are not fulfilling his will. 

There is another side to this verse, however.   If God is truly sovereign, then there is nothing that happens without his allowing it, even though it may be the result of our own stupidity, or Satan’s attacks.  If we understand how much God loves us, even sacrificing his own son for us, we know that he will always act in our best interests, no matter how bad something may seem. 

Romans 8:28-33 reminds us, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.   For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.  Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?  He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?  Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth.” 

God gave his own son for us when we were his enemies because he knew what we were like.  He was not randomly picking in hopes that we would turn out to be good enough.  It is him that makes us good enough, not our own actions.   Having invested his own son’s life for us, he will not throw away his investment for some minor irritation.  Instead, he will see that we have everything we need to accomplish his purpose.  Even the worst things that happen to us will ultimately turn out for our benefit. 

In Genesis 37: we find the story of Joseph’s brothers selling him into slavery.  After a short time, he was accused of sexual impropriety, and sentenced to prison.  He had gone from the favored son in a wealthy family to being one of the most hated foreigners, and remained that way for thirteen years. Finally, God used a contact he had made in prison to promote Joseph to being the Prime Minister of Egypt. 

Nine years later, Genesis 45:4-8 tells us, “And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.   Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.  For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest.  And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.  So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.”

Though what had happened was a result of evil intentions by his brothers, it was God’s way of accomplishing his purpose, saving not only Joseph, but the entire nation of Israel.   Who knows what God may be doing in your life through these problems and trials?   Rejoice that God considers you faithful enough to be entrusted with such a situation.  Don’t waste your time fighting against God’s plan and complaining, as I Thessalonians 5:19 tells us, “Quench not the Spirit.” Let him have his way and don’t try to prevent him from accomplishing his purpose.   

Don’t get resentful about things in God’s word that don’t suit you.  I Thessalonians 5:20-22 commands, “Despise not prophesyings.  Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.  Abstain from all appearance of evil.”   Check out the teaching of God’s Word to be sure that is what it really means and practices what is good while not doing what it says is wrong.  Understand that it is the Holy Spirit who is teaching you these things, according to John 14:26.  “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”   Refusing to heed the scriptures is one of the ways we quench the Holy Spirit. 

While it may seem difficult and counter intuitive, we can be sure of the results of exercising our faith.  I Thessalonians 5:23-24 promises, “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.”   Our faith rests on the very character of God.