The real faith walk of the believer has nearly nothing to do with trying to get “stuff” from God. Faith has been perverted into a selfish indulgence of self-gratification. Our greatest application of faith will be in the finished work of Jesus and who we are in . From this the promises are trusted and realized in a seemingly effortless manner.
Our traditional approach to faith actually epitomizes unbelief: Since I have fear in my heart, I don’t believe that God has freely given me everything I need in Christ. I’m like Adam: I somehow think that He is keeping the best back from me. So I’m going to get enough “faith” to get God to give me something that He says I already have. Let’s face it, if I had faith, I would believe what I already have in Christ. We, like Adam, are always trying to get something God has already given us, thereby testifying to our unbelief in His finished work!
When faith works by love, it trusts the love that God has for us. We look to the finished work of Jesus and are fully persuaded of His limitless love. “In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him…to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:9-10). The word propitiation means of satisfying of wrath. Because Jesus satisfied the wrath of God against our sins, we never have to fear God hurting or rejecting us. This realization of love drives out fear and faith blossoms.
Real faith is a response to what God has done in Jesus. It is not what we do to get God to respond to us. Real faith and confidence in every area of life comes because it is rooted in the love of God and the finished work of Jesus. Real believing doesn’t look to how strong our faith is as much as it looks at how strong and perfect God’s love is.
Excerpted from Take Control of Your Life by Dr. James B. Richards. Copyright 2012 by Dr. James B. Richards. Published by True Potential Publishing, Inc. Used by permission.
