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God: “Happy New Years Eve!”

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Today is the last day of 5785 – the Year of Faith, or more like the Year of Fight, as in “Fight the good fight of faith!” Hebrews 11:1 states: Now faith is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses]. Regarding the unseen Romans 4:17 states: As it is written, I have made you the father of many nations. [He was appointed our father] in the sight of God in Whom he believed, Who gives life to the dead and speaks of the nonexistent things that [He has foretold and promised] as if they [already] existed.

On our new year’s eve many people stay up late to welcome in the new year, and say good bye to the old. However with God’s New Year many people, along with His prophets, will spend time seeking the Lord inquiring about His plans for His new year. Eph. 3:17 states: May Christ through your faith [actually] dwell (settle down, abide, make His permanent home) in your hearts! May you be rooted deep in love and founded securely on love,…Since this year has been a year of Faith what have you been building through your faith? What is Faith? Faith is an alignment or agreement with the physical and spiritual world. We practice faith everyday in the physical world. What am I referring too? Presently I am typing this message expecting – by faith – that what my brain is discerning from the Lord will make it to the keyboard of the computer through my fingers. Then, by faith, I expect that the computer will be able to process the information being sent electronically to the computer and will interpret it correctly in order to post it to an internet site millions of miles away that you will be able to receive via an email message. Faith is practiced when we start our cars, use the brake or accelerator, cross bridges, and drive along side and towards other drivers, who we are trusting, and believing, to follow the laws, stay in their lane, brake at an appropriate time, etc. In fact, it seems we have more faith in the physical realm than we do in the spiritual although the spiritual realm is more real and consistent.

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses]. Recently I received an email from Wanda Van Linde forwarded me an article from Christian Women of Israel which stated that 5786 will be a year of connection. Connection to what? Connection to what He has promised! 2 Peter 1:3-4 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

Faith is the substance of the things we hope for. Maybe that’s our problem. We haven’t trusted the God of the Word to speak to us through His Word, and His promises. Because we haven’t trusted His Word we are ignorant of what to hope for; what to put our hopes in. Without hope there is no conviction of the reality of the unseen as if it’s seen. God is perfectly confident in His Word knowing that what He speaks will manifest, and has already manifested into reality.

Do you have that hope? Do you have that confidence? Is Jesus, through your faith, [actually] dwelling, settling down, abiding, making His permanent home in your heart? Is your faith giving life to the dead things in and around you – bringing them to life? Are you claiming the promises of His Word, and meeting the conditions of those promises?

In God We Trust?

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2 John 5-6 And now I beg you, lady (Cyria), not as if I were issuing a new charge (injunction or command), but [simply recalling to your mind] the one we have had from the beginning, that we love one another. 6 And what this love consists in is this: that we live and walk in accordance with and guided by His commandments (His orders, ordinances, precepts, teaching). This is the commandment, as you have heard from the beginning, that you continue to walk in love [guided by it and following it].

It sounds so simple to obey the command to love. But in reality it’s easy to love the people we like or that love and like us. The difficult people not so much. I’ve been pastoring for over 30 years and I have had the “blessing” of being on the receiving end of all of the above. Practicing this command hasn’t gotten any easier but I can say that the Lord has given me some tools to help cope with the pain that comes from rejection, hurt, criticism and pain. What are some of those tools?

  1. Become like Jesus. That’s a simple but profound truth. It’s been said you can’t become an overcomer till you have been given something to overcome. The same is true of becoming like Jesus. If I am going to “become” then I will need to face the challenges that do not look or sound like Jesus. When I am challenged I am learning to see that as an opportunity to become like Jesus. In other words, I lean into the pain. John 4 states that Jesus had need to go to Samaria. Samaritans hated Jews. Thus you can infer from this passage that Jesus had need to be rejected. He knew He would grow through it.
  2. Pray to see the person or difficult situation as Jesus sees them (or it). In the Book of Genesis God goes looking for Adam and Eve after they had eaten the forbidden fruit. Adam tells the Lord that he had hidden himself because he was afraid; and I was naked. The Lord wisely asks, Who told you that you were naked? The enemy, the accuser of the brothers, is in the full-time business of reminding all of us that we are naked. God on the other hand covers our sins, nakedness, shame, and guilt.
  3. Release the person from your expectations. One of the weirdest passages in the Bible is found in John 2:24: But Jesus [for His part] did not trust Himself to them, because He knew all [men];…How can Jesus, Who loves all people perfectly, not trust them? 1 Corinthian 13:7 states that Love always trusts. I asked the Lord about this and He gave me a great answer. He reminded me of my children when they were toddlers. He asked, Robert did you love your children when they were toddlers? I said, Absolutely Lord! He asked, Would you have trusted them to drive your car? I answered, Absolutely not! He asked, Did you love your children less because you didn’t trust them to drive the car? His point was made. Jesus loves, and He always trusts – yet He has realistic expectations of what we are and are not capable of doing and being.

Chuck Swindoll author of, Make Up Your Mind, writes that: In the 1960s a teacher was given a roster showing the actual I.Q. test scores of the students of one class, and for another class a roster in which the I.Q. column had been (mistakenly) filled in with the students’ locker numbers. The teacher assumed that the locker numbers were the actual I.Q.s of the students when the rosters were posted at the beginning of the semester. After a year it was discovered that in the first class the students with high actual I.Q. scores had performed better than those with low ones. But in the second class the students with higher locker numbers scored significantly higher than those with lower locker numbers!

When we shift our focus, and expectations from others onto Jesus, He empowers us to do all the above. Which really is all about trust. Who do you trust? Isn’t it funny that we have trouble trusting Jesus and others? Yet, we trust ourselves – more than them – to protect us from being harmed or hurt. We say we Love Him. If love always trusts then our focus will need to shift from us – onto Him.