Matthew 4:10-11 Reading Plan
(This section should be read with 9-12)
Yesterday, I was cleaning up my home office since my dad was coming to stay with us. Under my desk, I discovered an unused gift card to Esteban's. If you live here, you know that Esteban's is a staple Mexican food restaurant in League City (It's no Chuy's, but they are good people). I believe that I have a card. I believe that it's worth $40. I believe that it's for Esteban's. I believe that if I am hungry, I can use that card for food. I also believe that I can eat at Esteban's and pay by another means. But, if I am going to have that card credited for me, I have to go use it.
Do you think this is a good analogy for our faith and righteousness? We can have faith, but it's not credited to us as righteousness until we act on it, until we cash it in, until we validate it by doing something? Abraham's faith was credited to him as righteousness when he stepped out and did something.
Maybe I'm off but to me this means that in order to see God's true blessings, we have to step out in faith...out of our day-to-day comfortability and truly trust Him for the next step. I think He's always there waiting for us to take that step.
ReplyDeleteDoes that card have an expiration? Does God....?
ReplyDeleteStan
God's crediting Abraham's faith as righteousness happened BEFORE he did anything. What does that mean for us?
ReplyDeleteAngela, I do believe that if we want to see God's true blessings, we have to step out and trust him. The question I have is "Would Abraham's faith been accredited as righteousness if he had never DONE anything?"
Faith always seems to me to be an attitude of the heart that 'requires' an action. The two semm to go hand in hand.
ReplyDeleteSo James says that 'Faith without works is dead'. It seems to me that James is saying faith yields action. Even our confession to God in prayer that we believe Jesus is the Christ is an 'act' born out of faith (belief). James 2:19 says that even the demons believe in God, yet they tremble. So it can't just be solely about belief. So I answer your question with a question: Can you separate one from the other?
"It can't just be solely about belief." I believe, but can it be solely about faith? I don't think that we can use faith and belief as synonyms. Faith (as in Eph 2:8) involves a persuasion and trust, but belief (as in James 2:19) is a different word leaning toward acknowledgement or assent. The demons do believe God, but they don't trust their lives into his care.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that Paul is saying that our getting set-right-with-God is only about faith, period. But then goes on later to say that becoming who God wants us to be after that