Faith in the Trenches
Luke 12: 29-32
29 “And do not seek what you should eat
or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind. 30 For all these
things the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knows that you need
these things. 31 But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall
be added to you. 32 “Do not fear,
little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the
kingdom.
Hebrews 11 takes us on a walk through the
Hall of Faith. Abel, Enoch, Noah,
Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and more.
We hear how each excelled in a life of faith. And we hear that there was not time to tell
about all the heroes of faith from the Old Testament.
32 And what more shall I say? For the
time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah,
also of David and Samuel and the prophets:
33 who through faith subdued kingdoms,
worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,
34 quenched the violence of fire,
escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant
in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.
35 Women received their dead raised to
life again.
Others were tortured, not accepting
deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.
36 Still others had trial of mockings
and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment.
Remember Jeremiah in the well and others who
were tortured? And Isaiah was sawn in
two by King Manassas. Some were called
to stand up to unrighteousness and warn of impending judgment. They did not want to betray their calling and
so stayed faithful unto death.
39 And all these, having obtained a good
testimony through faith, did not receive the promise,
40 God having provided something better
for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.
Faith.
You would think the OT would reference this word a lot. But you’d be wrong. The word Faith is only found twice in the OT
and not once in reference to any of these heroes of the faith.
So how does this relate to you and I? They were living looking forward to the
promise of the Messiah, but did not live to see the Messiah. We live under a better covenant. They only could ask for the Holy Spirit to
come upon them to help them, we have the Holy Spirit living inside us! We can talk to God through the Holy
Spirit! When we pray in the Spirit, we
have the confidence our prayers are being heard.
We are on the firing line every day. We are in a war where the enemy is invisible
and he has no mercy. Our best plan of
action is to stand on God’s Word because we know His Word is powerful. But we need to know His Word to be able to
stand on it.
Psalm 119:11
Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I
might not sin against You.
Paul tells us to put on God’s Word like
putting on armor and for the same reason.
We need to be ready for combat and protected from attack.
Ephesians 6:10-18
10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in
the Lord and in the power of His might. 11 Put on the whole armor of
God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the
devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against
principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this
age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore
take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil
day, and having done all, to stand.
Stand firm and don’t let go. They say a hero is someone who stood his
ground a second longer than anyone else.
Stand against the devil and don’t run.
Be the hero today.
Stephen Cram
Colossians 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through
philosophy and vain deceit, following the tradition of men according to the
rudiments of the world, and not in accordance with Christ.
Visit my pastor’s blog at http://pastorjonrhinehart.blogspot.com/.
Unless otherwise noted all Scripture is from the New King
James Version of the Bible.
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