If I had enough faith, I would be healed! If I had enough faith, God would
give me a lot more money! If I had enough faith, I would not be depressed! If I
had enough faith....You fill in the blank.
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All Content Copyrighted © 2012 Mark Maulding
How many of us have heard
that if we have enough faith, God would have to come through and bless us in
some way. I have and years ago I fell into the deception. And like many of you,
I came away feeling disappointed, confused and guilty. I concluded, "I must not
have had enough faith". Have you been there?
A good friend of mine, went
down that road with her husband who had cancer. She believed every promise she
could believe about his healing. She did not waiver. Yes, he received medical
treatments but over time he progressively got worse. The day he died, she was so
resolute in her faith, she was certain God was going to raise her husband from
the dead. Yet, God did not do this. I don't know that I have ever met anyone who
believed God more diligently than she did. Like many of us, in the end, she was
confused and befuddled.
This teaching that if we
only have enough faith, God will somehow bless us is a form of legalism. It is
simply a different flavor of it. The essence of legalism is if we do A, then God
is obligated to do B. It is sort of like playing a slot machine. If I believe
enough, my faith will pull God's arm down and I will win a big prize.
Because we live under
grace, I believe there is a different way to approach God's promises. First, let
me say loud and clear, we are to believe in God's promises 100%. But here is
where being under grace takes the pressure off of us and our relationship with
God. As we are believing God's promises, we then take any course of action regarding His promises that He leads us to
take. Finally, we leave the results up to God.
Do you sense the freedom of this? Every Christian has enough faith to believe God's promises. We may not always feel like we believe, but we cannot trust our feelings. The results of our faith are not up to us having enough faith but up to God Himself. Read Hebrews 11 about those who had faith. Some received the fulfillment of the promises they believed. Some did not.
Until next time, remember, He loves us!
Live Free In Christ,
Mark Maulding, President and Founder www.GraceLifeInternational.com
All Content Copyrighted © 2012 Mark Maulding
