Saving Faith

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.
[Hebrews 11:1+7 NKJV]

Is your faith saving face or have you found saving faith? Today’s scripture reveals what happens when we have found Saving Faith.

There have been times when my faith has been leaning more towards 'saving face' before the gathering, thinking maybe that if I appear holier than I feel then God will cover my deception before the world and at the same time give me more faith than I have.

As a teenager and beginning to find my feet in the world, my best friend and I would discuss 'religion', 'religions' and whether or not there was a God. Our discussions were often greatly skewed towards Christian religion, as we knew little of any other. I remember that on one occasion we decided that Jesus existed, because He was historically documented; but that the case for God - in good Scots Law fashion - was 'not proven'. We also concluded that to have faith you needed to have faith ... but how to find it, as it was not readily available in the shops. We therefore destroyed all notion of faith through the application of deductive reasoning.

And yet, at the back of the mind, was the constant prodding of the seed of faith that God had planted before the beginning of time. (God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began. [1 Timothy 1:9 NKJV])

What then is faith? Hebrews 11:1 above gives us the writer of Hebrews answer, and another definition I heard lately was "Faith is the indefinable certainty of God behind every thing." This is something I now know, but it took many years and many false avenues before I came to the depth of faith I have today. Until recently, I used to regret the many years when I languished in a casual belief in God. That in a sense, is faith that has faith in faith, and is worth little or nothing at all.

The only faith, is faith that is sure of God, and so I prayed about those wasted years. The Lord did not seem troubled. The reassurance was not of the 'that is OK, better late than never' dismissal, but of an amazing, revelatory, passionate embracing reassurance.

He said "Even if you were not always with Me; I am always with you." That is Faith with a capital F.

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"Faith" (from the soundtrack to the motion picture Son of God, and the television series The Bible) - Hans Zimmer

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OSWALD CHAMBERS - RUN TODAY’S RACE
Sunday 21st June 2020
“If we walk in the light” God will give us communion with people for whom we have no natural affinity.

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