FAITH THAT WORKS (part one)

Too often, our Christian lives have been defined exclusively from a perspective of what once was and what currently is in our lives. The life of faith that Christ is calling us to though is one that celebrates the past (What God has done), that steps out in the here and now (recognizing what God is doing) but also believes God for the greater things yet to come! (responding to who God is!)

Faith is less something we have to have and is more a response to the revelation of God’s character! He is faithful! We have been called to have faith in the faithful One who has rescued us from sin and death, who is loving, changing and shaping us but who is also inviting us to partner with Him in establishing what is yet to come!

 Two phrases that I believe are helpful in us coming to grips with this life of faith we are called to are below.

IT IS MORE IMPORTANT WHAT GOD HAS SAVED US INTO THAN WHAT GOD HAS SAVED US OUT OF!

-The incredible account found in Exodus of the miraculous rescue of the Israelite people out of slavery and Egypt (what with plagues, a reluctant Pharoah, the angel of death and an entire sea parting as if mere curtains being drawn back to name just a small portion of it) is only just the beginning of what God had intended for His chosen people. God rescued them OUT OF Egypt and then took them on a journey INTO the Promise Land and the very same is for us!

IT’S LESS A QUESTION OF WHAT GOD HAS SAVED ME FROM AND MORE OF WHAT GOD HAS SAVED ME FOR!

-We are not merely just sinners saved by grace but we have now been called sons and daughters! Slaves can never dream much further than the end of the day, possibly the end of the week. But it is sons and daughters who are given the privilege and provision to dream as widely and as far into the future as possible. And that is what we have been called for! Not merely just to survive the world, but to change it! The life of faith is one concerned with the unseen and not yet realities, and believing God for them.

What is your vision of your future? Is it one where you are still battling with the same old sin, the same sickness, a similar financial situation, a still unresolved relational tension, an unchanged level of influence? Faith is allowing the God of the impossible to take our pasts and our present realities, and letting Him shape them into a glorious future.

Faith is calling out to us today to say boldly and believe without fear that, “I’M JUST GETTING STARTED!”