Fireproof Faith
How strong is your belief in Christianity? Are you a weekend Christian or do you have fireproof faith? In this episode of A Few Minutes With God Podcast, Felice shares how all of us need put on the armor of Christ, each and every day.
Thanks to our sponsor – 40: The Temptation of Christ
As I think about the movie 40: The Temptation of Christ I remember specific scenes of Him wandering in the desert. This was a time for Him to go away and pray. He was filling himself with strength from the Father.
Often we are tempted to believe only what we can see, what is right in front of us and when we look at our lives objectively we may or may not like what we see. How can a righteous Lord, we ask, allow all the turmoil and problems in this world?
Recently I heard a talk where the pastor said that faith and hardships go hand in hand. That those who love the Lord and believe still have trials to go through. If you do not believe that think about the life of Christ. In the desert Jesus suffered, in His life, Jesus suffered, in His passion, the Garden, the scourging, the crowning of thorns, the nailing to the cross, He suffered. He suffered willingly and died for our sins…those past and those we have not even committed yet.
Our world teaches the opposite. Do what you want and be free to live your life in any way you want. And, this freedom does indeed come to us but from a righteous God who allows humankind to have free will.
The closer we grow in our walk with the Lord the clearer we see our own sinfulness. Believe me, this doesn’t happen overnight. I was in the righteous crowd not in the too far distant past. In fact, if truth be told, I probably was President of the Holier Than Thou Club. Of course, I was on the right path as a God-fearing, prayer saying, Mass attending Christian I was doing all the right things. But every time there was a problem, I’d crumble and say, “Why me? What now? What I am I to do?”
Fireproof Our Faith
We need to fireproof our faith it needs to be shored up in Christ so that we can weather the storms that are sure to come in this life. I think part of the issue stems from the fact that while we do not physically see Jesus, yet as a believer, we must know He is here. Right here. But it is a faith issue.
The Pharisees in John, Chapter 7 verses 30-36 kept trying to have Jesus prove He was the Messiah, but even if they saw Him perform miracles they still didn’t believe. Today so many people who say they believe in “a God” or “have faith” are still struggling with the faith they profess. That is not to point fingers but a fact we all deal with from time to time. It is easy to say, “praise you Jesus,” when everything is working out in our lives, but much harder to say, “praise you Jesus in all things,” when it is not. Praising God in everything is when we have real faith. The faith that surpasses all understanding.
We need that living water in our lives. Living water is a way to fireproof our faith.
John 7:37-38 (Read on air.)
Verse 38 bears repeating: “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’”
Living water puts out the fire! Living water cleanses us from sin and gives us new life – this is reason to rejoice! We continue to doubt because we live lives that are so sad and filled with worry. But, God hears us. Even if we don’t feel it – with the virus that plagued our world so many people were sick with worry because supplies were not readily available, strict travel curfews were set for our protection, and truthfully the air of uncertainty was very scary. When will it end? When will we go back to unrestricted travel, open churches and more? During this season there have been so many people that are stressed, nervous and unsure about the future. Yet we learn from Scripture that God always wins.
God has not forsaken us – He has not abandoned us, we are in the palm of His hand. We can look at Daniel Chapter 3 for an example of a situation where believers had the choice of life or death and they chose death over denying God.
I once taught a high school class at church and asked the children about the strength of their Christian belief. We discussed faith in the broadest sense, and then I asked if you were asked to forsake God or be killed what would you do? That brought about a lively discussion each has a perspective of what they would do in that situation, however, the consensus was that lying (because of course, you would not mean it) would be preferable to dying. That shows the level of faith for some. In situations of faith we often say there is no right or wrong answer, but the truth is the correct answer for a person who knows Jesus laid down his life for their sins – the sinless lamb was slain for us – should be willing to acknowledge that they would die in return. That my friends is the goal, to believe in a way that is unyielding.
Many of you are familiar with the book of Daniel, especially Chapter 3. King Nebuchadnezzar was a proud man and had destroyed many cities including conquering and invading Judea where he destroyed the temple. He had persecuted Daniel, his friends, his people. This King was renowned and today is attributed to creating one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
Daniel opens with an account of King Nebuchadnezzar who had a massive gold statue built that he wanted everyone to worship. The King was informed that certain Jews who were administrators of Babylon would not bow before the graven image. This infuriated the King and he ordered these men burned in a furnace – giving orders to heat it up seven times more than usual.
When the King presented the men with an option they were firm in their faith and replied … Daniel 3:16-18 (Read on air.)
Does this describe our faith? God can deliver us from pain, suffering, difficulties in our lives and our struggles. But it is as the men prayed… if it be so, our God will deliver us – but if he does not… what then? What will we believe?
Maybe God says yes and delivers us – and if He says no, there is a greater plan a greater good. That is our hope as Christians. We praise God anyway. Faith is clinging to God in all circumstances. These men knew their lives would end in a horrible way, yet they chose death rather than forsake God.
The story goes on that even the men the King commanded who were in his army, that tied up Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego and threw them in the furnace died from the extreme heat of the blaze.
But we learn that as the King looked on he questioned the witnesses saying, Daniel 3:24-26 (Read on air.)
When they came out the witnesses saw the men were untouched by the flames, not a single hair on their heads was singed and they didn’t even smell like fire!
For this reason, the King responded…Daniel 28-29 (Read on air.)
These men had a relationship with God, and the Book of Daniel is in the Old Testament – they didn’t even know about Jesus yet! And, look at their faith.
Oh if we could only have this type of faith! But we can! If we praise God in all things we will also find that our praises will lift up our spirits. We are weak when we let the enemy infiltrate our thoughts and cause us to stumble in sin. God inhabits our praises.
1 Peter 5:8-10 (Read on air.)
In the same way that the men resisted bowing down to the idol – we can have new life in Christ. Do we only praise God when things go well in our lives? Or are we the Easter People that I talked about in the last podcast? A sign of our strength of faith is to praise God in all things even those things that don’t go as we would like or as we planned. In order to fireproof our faith, we must be obedient, to believe even in our unbelief. Mark 9:24 “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”
Recently when something traumatic happened to a member of my family I held tight in my prayer and I was so uptight and upset. It was a situation that was totally out of my hands and I had no control, yet I believe in God and therefore believe in miracles. I had several sleepless nights as I thought about the possibility of dire outcomes. (I was in the future when God is here in the now.) Once I gave these negative thoughts over to the Lord and said, “Your will Lord not mine,” only then did I feel peace. Once we unite our will to that of the Lord’s we become obedient children and allow the Lord to work in our lives – He is a God of miracles, and I for one can’t wait to see what He will do with our yes!
Let’s Pray:
Oh my Jesus, you are the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. You are the living water, the great I AM – you are the Alpha and the Omega the beginning and the end. I believe and I ask you to come into my life and fireproof my faith. I realize in my trials I am weak, but I know that you are strong. Dear Lord, I ask you to bless me abundantly with the gift of faith and the good news that you are here now. Dear Heavenly Father, Son and, Holy Spirit please hear the prayers that I ask for today… in your infinite wisdom and mercy my God I ask for you to bless those I prayed for and if it is your will, answer these prayers. Amen.
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