The Eyes Of Faith (part 5)

I Peter 1:

[1] Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,
[2] Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.
[3] Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
[4] To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fades not away, reserved in heaven for you,
[5] Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
[6] Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:
[7] That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
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Warning! Warning! Warning!...This just in. Your faith is under fire!

The day will come when our faith will be severely tested. What will we do? A lot of we do tomorrow depends on what we do today. A lot of what happens tomorrow depends on how we handle what happens today. Faith built up in peace time equals a faith that is more likely to withstand the wiles of the devil, temptations of life, and temptations to quit this walk of faith.

By "peace time" I mean the time when nothing tragic is happening in your life. There is nothing in particular stressing your faith. The devil is not in attack mode on your life. The car is running fine. The bills are getting paid. The kids are acting right. Folks on the job are treating you like you think you should be treated. Relationships are in happy mode.

Let me tell ya though. Sometimes....Right when you get relaxed and comfortable in your time of peace...BOOM!....here comes life. Those things listed in the previous paragraph, that were going great, begin to do a u-turn. And they don't wait to reek havoc on your life in staggered fashion. It seems that they often come, all at once. It seems that we get hit from all directions, so it does not matter which way we turn. And not only that, but it seems as though, no matter how many people we have in our life, to a certain extent, we are still alone in the battle.

Now, the question arises. Will we continue to send up those same praises to God that we sent up a couple weeks ago before the car broke down? Will we walk around with that same smile on our face as we did when things were going good with the family at home? Is God still "Good all the time, and all the time God is good", when we don't get what we want? Will we still be "blessed and highly favored", when we see no appearance of any obvious blessings or favors?

And remember those stories about Abraham, David, Elijah, Paul, and their "adventures" in faith? Remember when we thought in our mind, "If that happened to me I would have done _____________________." Well, here comes an adventure for us. It is now our time to stand. Will we? It becomes our time to fill in the blanks about what we truly would do.

I have not even mentioned the testing of our faith that comes from persecution brought by others because of our stand taken for Christ. I am not sure if you know it, but people have throughout all of history suffered greatly for their stand for Christ. And guess what? It is stilling going on in certain parts of the world today. I will discuss that in the next message.

The big thing is that faith must be exercised, AT ALL TIMES. It must be strengthened when things are going good. It must stand the test of time when the temperature is turned up on it. Faith must be stood on when things do not look quite like we think they should. God is God ALL THE TIME. It does not matter what is going on in our life or around our life. You can believe that, and you can stand on that.


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What is under your feet? Who is your foundation?