FAITH OVER FEAR

What is the state of God’s love which you have experienced?
God once loved me but does not love me anymore
God loves me, but I am not assured of the continuity of His love
God loves me and will always love me.

Love describes the very nature of God. God does not learn to love, such that He learns to act in love today and on the following day, he has to learn how to express or walk in love again. If God still had to learn to love, some of us would not be beneficiaries of the acts of His love. But the Bible tells us that God is Love. No learning has to be done. He is perfect in Love.

What is the implication of God’s ever-abounding love to us?
The gift of salvation which we enjoy as believers was orchestrated by the love of God.
Romans 5:8 – But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us.
When we became saved, we were made heirs and joint heirs with Christ.
Romans 8:17 – and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be
that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
As we progress in this saved life, we have the gift of eternal life. John 3:16 – For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

A newly born child  does not know how to love or accept the love of anyone else more than it does for its mother. So, in the face of hunger, discomfort or fear, it cries out to be consoled by its mother alone. As humans, we can come to the point where the reality of God’s love comes as the ocean tides. This moment, it is as real as God is and the next minute it fades off like it was never there before.

Isaiah 43:1-2 NIV – But now, this is what the Lord says— he who created you, Jacob, he who formed you, Israel: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. [2] When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze

This scripture is a picture of two things:
The possibilities of outward unpleasant circumstances and the reality of God’s promises.
As humans, reality is everything our eyes can see and all that our mind can grasp. When we become believers, our reality depends more on what God says than what our eyes can see. Our consciousness of God’s unfailing love depends on how much we have internalised what we have heard God say to us.

So, the extent to which we can navigate our emotions to respond appropriately to God’s definition of reality, is how much we have allowed God’s definition of reality to transform our minds.

Faith is holding on to what we’ve believed in the face of unpleasant circumstances.
Faith is never automatic, it grows.
Matthew 17:20 And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
Your faith in the possibilities in God is all that matters and not the magnitude of your challenges.

So how do you grow in faith?
Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. A more intentional thing to do after hearing the word is meditation. Meditation in the Word of God is one of the keys to obtaining understanding and truth.

To meditate means to muse, to ponder, consider, and study closely. It means taking hold of a promise or a truth and going over it again and again.  You are not going over it in order to memorize it, but to get all the richness and truth in it. You are thinking on it consistently and allowing it to wash through your inner man.

Treat the Word of God just as a cow chews her cud; swallow it, then bring it back up again, going over it again and again. Each time you
chew on it, you are demanding all the nutrients out of it, making it more and more a part of your
being. Our goal should be to engage with God’s word in a way that translates into practical living.

MARANATHA!

EDITORIAL UNIT,
TACSFON UI