Bible Studies

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PASSIONATE SPIRITUALITY: 7

FAITH AND SUBMISSION TO CHRIST

Lack of faith or unbelief in who God is, and what He says in His word, is a serious sin - because without faith we cannot please God. Remember that faith is counted as our righteousness. A refusal to believe the word of God is called unfaithfulness and rebellion – the same as being unfaithful to your husband or wife.

READ AND DISCUSS:
· Heb. 3:14-19 – We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. As has been said: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.” Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? And with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert? And to whom did God swear that they would never enter His rest if not to those who disobeyed? So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.

Each time we exercise our will and make up our minds to believe God, He is completely faithful to His promises, in His time, and we are blessed with increasingly more of His Presence and love as we patiently wait for His answers. This is supremely pleasing to our God. Faith grows as we experience the reality that He is always trustworthy, although intellectual agreement without action that proves our faith is empty.

· James 2:18-24 – But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that – and shudder. You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.

Let’s use an illustration from the relationship between ourselves and our children - When we observe one of our children attempting to put their fingers into an electric socket, we warn them sternly of the dangers and prohibit them from doing so. It hurts us when the child chooses to ignore us, not only because they are rebellious but also because we know the dangers involved. If the child obeys our command, it shows that his obedience is a natural response to the faith he has in our superior wisdom and love for him.

Reliance on Christ for everything is what God demands from us. True faith is not faith in the strength or amount of our faith but trust and hope in the promises of God. The difference is subtle but vital. Faith is not an attempt to conjure up a stronger faith by trying harder to believe, but simply an act of the will to trust God alone. This is why faith as small as a mustard seed can move mountains!

Faith is childlike in its simplicity. We would be horrified if our little sons and daughters felt that they had to exercise some sort of mental power before we relented and provided their needs! Try to imagine how hurt you would feel if you overheard your child saying to himself, “If I just try harder to believe, maybe Mom will feed me.” All we want is that they simply trust that we will do what loving parents are meant to do. As parents, our task is to love, protect and provide for them. How would we react if our children were so distrustful of our desire to care for them that they ignored us and proceeded to try and look after themselves? We are doing just this when we fail to have faith in our Heavenly Father whose task it is to love, protect and provide for us. Biblical faith is actually very simple. This is why Jesus says we are to become like little children:

· Matt. 18:1-4 – (Jesus) called a little child and had him stand among (the disciples). And he said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

Our salvation is from beginning to end through faith and not works so that no one can boast in their own strength of character, wisdom or achievements. Faith is definitely not self-confidence but a very real conviction of our own weakness and Christ’s inestimable strength and power. To return to the illustration of the doubting children – who knows better how to teach, guide and protect? The child or the parent? Therefore, trusting in our own understanding or the world’s ‘wisdom’ is foolishness. We are God’s children. Relying on any means other than God’s for answers or guidance is classed in the same category as the Israelites turning to foreign gods. Any values, solutions, teachings etc. not in line with the Bible are foreign (strange, alien) to the Truth. We are often convinced that we are trusting completely in Christ when we are, in actual fact, relying on our own understanding or the ‘wisdom’ of the world, either because we do not know the word, do not believe it or choose to ignore it. Our faith must never be in the act of belief, but in Christ - the Person of our belief.

OPENLY SHARE AND DISCUSS TIMES WE HAVE LACKED TRUE FAITH IN GOD IN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER.


READ AND DISCUSS WHAT THE FOLLOWING PASSAGES HAVE TO SAY ABOUT FAITH:
· Eph. 2:8-10 – For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
· Pr. 3:5,6 – Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.
· Rom. 9:31-33 – But Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but, as if it were, by works. They stumbled over the ‘stumbling stone’. As it is written, “See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who trusts in Him will never be put to shame.”
· Rom. 3:27,28 – Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.
· Rom. 5:1,2 – Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
· 2 Cor. 5:7 – We live by faith, not by sight.

Spend time in prayer asking God to search our hearts and reveal any faults or difficulties we may have in the area of faith. He is gracious and will always forgive the broken and contrite heart.

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