From Pastor's Heart :

The Assuming Faith

April 25,2019

The longer I live as a Christian, the more convinced I am about the necessity of faith in our daily walk of life. I John 5:4 tells us that faith is what we use to overcome this world. Whatever the problems or challenges we face in this life, faith is needed for a divine action and intervention. But sad to say, many Christians treat faith as an event and not as a lifestyle. They treat faith like a spare tire and only take it out when they have a flat. Faith cannot to be treated as a spare tire; when it is neglected, it ceases to be functional. The danger of a non-functional faith is in its subtlety. The persons with a non-functional faith believe that they are still in faith when they are not. They have what I called the assuming faith. They assume that God is still blessing them, protecting them, and working on their behalf when He is not. Like Samson who loses God's power but still thinks that he has power. When the Philistines came, he shook himself like he normally did and had a rude awakening. We will only know whether our faith is functional or not when we are being confronted and challenged. Sooner or later we will face our Goliath. The question is, will we be ready?

We live by faith and not by assumption! God can only work in our life through faith, and that faith must be a functional faith. A functional faith is not passive. A functional faith must be maintained. The old saying, "if you don't use it, you lose it" applies to our faith. Like athletes who constantly need to sharpen their skills, our faith needs to be practiced on a regular basis. The Bible refers to a Christian as an athlete and a soldier (I Cor 9:24-27; II Tim 2:3-5). A good soldier lives in a state of readiness because his life depends on it. We must arm ourselves with the same mental attitude and fortitude. Our enemy is relentless and will come to us at the most unexpected moment. We must be sharp and alert by discipline ourselves daily, keeping our faith strong and active. Like a boxer, our training for the fights of this life will show up - in the ring.

"If you cheat in the dark of the morning, you'll get found in the bright lights of the night" ~Joe Frazier