Certainty

PROVERBS 22:17-21

Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise,
And apply your heart to my knowledge;
For it is a pleasant thing if you keep them within you;
Let them all be fixed upon your lips,
So that your trust may be in the LORD;
I have instructed you today, even you.
Have I not written to you excellent things
Of counsels and knowledge,
That I may make you know the certainty of the words of truth,
That you may answer words of truth
To those who send to you?

Certainty is the thing we hope to attain. If we are certain of something, there is no doubt; we are locked in to an outlook, a belief, a way of life, a prejudice, a preference, a like or a dislike, an opinion. As believers in Jesus Christ, the certainty of all He brought into this world is fundamental to our faith. Our own prejudices and opinions must fall away so that our Lord prevails. We are not our own. If we are uncertain of this, we are in danger of faltering and stumbling in our walk with God.

Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient,
“The stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief cornerstone,”
and
“A stone of stumbling
And a rock of offense.”
They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed.
1 PETER 2:7-8

Proverbs reminds us that I may make you know the certainty of the words of truth, while 1 Peter states that stumbling is being disobedient to the word… to which they also were appointed. In other words abandoning the certainty of the word is what leads to our stumbling in faith.

When The Lord gave me ‘certainty’ as something to consider, I felt encouraged, certain in fact that I had heard from Him, but as the moment passed along with the days, doubt crept in. More than that, I could no longer be sure of what made me feel so certain about ‘certainty’ in the first place. I did what I have often done before which is to search out a matter [Proverbs 25:2]. As often happens when you begin looking into the things of the Lord, He presents you with the very thing you need; in this case a reading from Oswald Chambers’ ‘My Utmost For His Highest’, where he talks of Faith.

Faith in active opposition to common sense is mistaken enthusiasm and narrow-mindedness, and common sense in opposition to faith demonstrates a mistaken reliance on reason as the basis for truth. The life of faith brings the two of these into the proper relationship. Common sense and faith are as different from each other as the natural life is from the spiritual, and as impulsiveness is from inspiration.

Nothing that Jesus Christ ever said is common sense, but is revelation sense, and is complete, whereas common sense falls short. Yet faith must be tested and tried before it becomes real in your life. “We know that all things work together for good” (Romans 8:28) so that no matter what happens, the transforming power of God’s providence transforms perfect faith into reality.

Faith always works in a personal way, because the purpose of God is to see that perfect faith is made real in His children. For every detail of common sense in life, there is a truth God has revealed by which we can prove in our practical experience what we believe God to be. Faith is a tremendously active principle that always puts Jesus Christ first. The life of faith says, “Lord, You have said it, it appears to be irrational, but I’m going to step out boldly, trusting in Your Word” (for example, see Matthew 6:33).

Turning intellectual faith into our personal possession is always a fight, not just sometimes. God brings us into particular circumstances to educate our faith, because the nature of faith is to make the object of our faith very real to us. Until we know Jesus, God is merely a concept, and we can’t have faith in Him. But once we hear Jesus say, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9) we immediately have something that is real, and our faith is limitless. Faith is the entire person in the right relationship with God through the power of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

OSWALD CHAMBERS ‘My Utmost For His Highest’ (30th October)

The line that impacted on me most readily was Nothing that Jesus Christ ever said is common sense, but is revelation sense, and is complete. Making that distinction convinces my rational reasoning self that it does not and can not know everything, and helps in faith-building, reinforcing that my confidence is in The Lord, and repeated confidence makes for certainty.

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy, says William Shakespeare’s Hamlet (Act 1, scene 5).

I’M CONFIDENT OF THIS VERY THING…

A CLOSING WORD from AARON NEVILLE
Every morning I wake up and thank God.

LISTEN TO THIS MEDITATION HERE…

… with apologies for extraneous noises … wood chopping next door … our small dog doing her ‘power shake’ to indicate her walk time is overdue … etc., etc. ...

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COMING NEXT… #553 UNDER THE FIG TREE, I SAW YOU