Articles
More Than A Thread
IF your faith is weak today, is it because of intent or by default? What do we mean by that?
I think all of us struggle at times with different things, and some of those test our faith. I'm not saying what we believe is challenged necessarily, although it could be, but more that our actions and responses to things in life don't grow us. Why is that?
In a nutshell, I think it's because making the right choice isn't usually the easy choice. It usually takes more effort to do the right thing, not always, but much of the time.
We could apply that to church attendance, daily bible reading, acts of service and many other things we consider 'religious', and it can be applied to basically everything else we do in life too. We normally look for the path of least resistance don't we? I find myself lazy and/or procrastinating sometimes, and wonder why I do that. Certainly this applies to my faith too! So our question, are we weak because we want to be (ie, Jesus isn't for us or isn't very important to us), or are we weak simply because we don't do the things that would make us strong even though we have a desire to?
Today, consider that there are things that specifically grow our faith and make it strong, and anything that does not do that, at best leaves us stagnate, or worse, damages our faith.
Consider today these thoughts.
1. God's Word is always our answer. If He hasn't addressed something directly in scripture, we know from what He has said what path we should take. (Rom 10:17)
2. We need to spend time learning more about Him, so that we can be more like Him. (John 13:13-17)
3. We obviously do better when we run with others who are of like mind. Brotherly love and fellowship are extremely important to a strong faith. (John 13:34-35)
4. If our faith is a dead faith, it's of no value. Our faith needs to be active. Our daily deeds need to be a demonstration of our faith in action. (James 2:18, 26)
5. Spreading the Gospel, reaching out to others confirms our faith, grows our faith and shares our faith. (Mark 16:20)
Today, you and I alone have control over our lives and growing our faith is up to us. Failing to grow our faith will, by default, cause us to have a weak faith. While that's better than making choices that promote a weak faith or no faith at all, God and Christ desire for us to have a life of joy and contentment, exercising a strong faith. (John 15:1-12) A strong faith and true happiness in Christ don't come from hanging on by a thread, they come from walking hand in hand with Him.
