He Looks at Your Faith - Part 2

Clarification

The other day I wrote a post about faith being accounted as righteousness before God. In this post, I stated that God does not look at your works, but your faith. After I made this post, I had a sister in Christ inbox me with the scriptures coming from "James 2:14-18".

"What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,' but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, 'You have faith, and I have works.' Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works."

Reading over these verses, I felt led to clarify some things about my previous post. Let me first say, that I do not object to anything in these verses or the fact that my sister in Christ felt led to share them with me. It is the word of the living God. In fact, I thank her for them. It shows me that she cares enough about me that she wants me to not be in error of God's word. Friend, she is doing what she has been ordained to do.

I'm going to ask that you will read over these verses one more time before you proceed to reading the rest of this post. The verses above help clarify why God accounted Abraham's faith to him as righteousness. When God told Abraham that He would give Him an heir, Abraham believed him (Genesis 15:6). But Abraham also had to do something. Abraham, at the appointed time, had to sleep with Sarah. It was then that she conceived Isaac, the promised heir. Abraham's faith in God led him to do the works that led to the conception of Isaac.

This matter of works is a totally different matter than the one I discussed in my previous post. However, for you to have the full understanding of it is just as important. In both matters of faith, God still looks at your faith and not your works. One has to do with you believing in God to make you righteous rather than you thinking that you have to do everything right or by the book. It has to do with you not allowing the enemy the room to make you think that you are a worthless person because you make a mistake. The other has to do with you believing in God and your faith in God causes you to keep yourself pure before God.

Hebrews 11:6 says that without faith it is impossible to please God. And what James is saying in the scriptures above coincides with that. Your faith in God drives you to live the righteous life that Jesus died for you to live. Your faith in God drives you to want to be the best that you can be before God. Even if you make a mistake, you repent, get up, dust off, and keep going............by faith. My brother, my sister, every work that you do before the eyes of our Father in heaven will not be perfect. But the fact that you have faith in Him allows him not to look at your works. He looks at your faith for the reason why you do the works.

Abraham's faith in God had to show that he believed in God. Put it this way, I don't believe you or I would be confessing to be a child of God while the things we do and say scream everything but a child of God. Your faith in God produces the fruit of that faith. When you love God, you will obey God. When God is the driving force of your faith, you will have works. You will change the way you talk, walk, think and act. Yes, faith without works is dead. But the predominant factor here is this........God does not want you to think that the things you do is what makes you righteous before Him. Your faith.......your faith is what He sees above everything else. Your faith in why you live the way you live and do what you do to glorify Him is what He sees. Again I say, God looks at your faith.

Blessings,

A Name for Yourself

The Tower of  Babel

Sitting one day in our front living room, I read a story to my nephew. It was "The Story of the Tower of Babel". Now I have heard this story told many times. I've heard it being spoken of in the sermons of pastors. And I guess, I never paid attention to enlightenment of it. But on this one particular day, this story came alive to me. I began to understand it's meaning.

Have you ever gotten the idea to create something? How did it make you feel? Could some of the feelings you felt be excitement, happy, joyful? I bet you couldn't wait to get started. You gathered your materials and put together your strategies. You wrote down your start-to-finish. Pretty soon you had a finished product. How did you feel about your finished creation? Did you cherish it? Did you love it? I would even say that you didn't even let anything happen to it, did you?

Friend, the way you felt about your creation is the same way that God felt when he created you. The book of Genesis 1:31 states clearly that God saw everything that He created and it was "good". However,  after the fall of man (Adam) things changed. The hearts of God's creation became evil. They began to worship themselves rather than God. His name became no longer important as they sought to make a name for themselves. This is the case with the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9).

Now the whole earth had one language and one speech...........and they said, "Come let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves..........." (vs. 1-4).

 

 

The creation of God had discovered their liberty and freedom. But instead of worshipping God and building up His name, they decided that they would build up their own name. They wanted to be able to say that they did it. God was left out. Or was He? If you continue to read the chapter, you will see that God came down to see what they were doing. And as we know, God was not pleased. His creation making a name for themselves? As loving and merciful as He is, this was something He could not allow to happen. So He confused their language.

 

Are there any of you reading this post who feel a slight conviction by this story? Well I have a confession to make.......it convicted me. If I may be truthful here, I check my blog page all of the time just to see if someone I associate with has left a comment or something on one of my posts. Sometimes I get discouraged when I see not one response. I have to admit that I had to examine myself and my motive for this page. The discouragement was so heavy that I felt as if the Holy Spirit said to me, that I was trying to build a name for myself.

 

I love God. I am grateful to Him for everything that He has done. Creation speaks of His beauty. I also love to write. At this point in my life, my life is completely consumed with my Father. The reason I started this page was that I could express my love for Him. I freely want to share with the world what an awesome God we serve. I find though that I must be careful by not losing my focus. It's about my Creator, not me. I feel privileged that my eyes are able to see and that my ears are able to hear.  

 

Gospel recording singer J. Moss has a song called, "We Must Praise". This song speaks of us using our every part of our bodies to praise God. This one particular verse of the song says...... "If I were a writer, I would use a pencil...." My blog to me is my pencil. What, my friend, are you using? Are you using it to lift up God's name or are you using it to make a name for yourself? I don't believe that the people of the Tower of Babel would have even attempted to make a name for themselves if they even considered the fact that God would separate them by confusing their language. This moment to me was one of God's ultimate test. One of the many that mankind failed.

 

How about your test? If God were to come down to see what you were doing with what He's given you, will you be found building up His name or yours. This story of the tower came alive to me because as simple and corny as it sounds, I realized where they got the word babbling from. Can you imagine being able to understand your neighbor one day and the next day you have not a clue as to what he or she is saying. If God did that then, what will He do now?

 

God wants to be glorified in everything that you or I do. Any time we do anything other than that, we are making a name for ourselves. The latter part of the song says this......."Since I'm a Believer, I use everything". 



Exposed

Realizing What I've Done

     This morning as I was reading the proverb for today, I came across one verse that really stuck out at me. I mean, it convicted me to my heart. And that was when I realized what I've done.

 

Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due,

 when it is in the power of your hand to do so.

(Proverbs 3:27)

 

     I have been robbing my family of my best. I have not been as good to them as I know I can be. Now you may ask, "How can I be sure?" I'm just gonna say, "Trust me, I know!" I know because I live this life everyday. I know what I do and don't do. I know the things that I put effort into and the things that I don't. And one thing that I have not put effort into is my family. It's a sad thing to say, but it's a hard truth. By admitting it, I am setting myself free to make room for God to be able to do something about it. Grant it be, I do have my part to do by looking to Him and obeying His command. In this area, I must step back and allow myself to follow as He leads me to making this right before Him, my husband and my children. I need to sit before them all and confess my fault.

 

 

Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another,

 that ye may be healed.......

(James 5:16)

 

     Admitting when I'm wrong has never been an easy thing for me to do. My pride just wouldn't allow it. Over the years of my walk with God, I have learned that I become the bigger person in taking the first step in making things right. It's my responsibility. Even when I know that I have done nothing wrong, I find nothing harmful with humbling myself while asking God to reveal to me if I am the cause of strife. Whether I am the cause or not, I still make it right. You may say, "Why, Erica?" It's the right thing to do. No, I don't want to do it all the time. Who does? But I must. Because I have to stand before my Creator. Most importantly, I'm grateful to God for all that He has done. I know that my Father above loves me so much that it behooves me to do the right thing. Another, thing, if I don't make things right, then I'm walking in unforgiveness.

 

     Now that He has revealed to me my fault that I have committed against my family out of pure selfishness, I must set about as I always do (or try to do) and make it right. I love my family, contrary to what people believe. I guess they say, "If you do, it will show." Well it will. I serve the Most High God. My faith is in Him. As long as I continue to look to Him, I know that He will be the strength I need.