The Who Of Biblical Faith Is What Matters!
The WHO of faith is what matters. God is rebirthing us to stop trying to figure out how we will have what we need and instead connect us to the "who" we need. Adam and Eve lost the complete confidence in who, and the whole world changed. The "who" of faith determines the source of our leadership. God has always made a way for the how.
Genesis 3:11 And He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?"
God's word reassures me of all the things I am tempted to worry about how.
Matthew 6:30-34 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? "Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
The kingdom of God is His leadership. His righteousness = the right way He leads. His ways... His hows... aren't like mine. He isn't like me. His ways are entirely different than mine.
Isaiah 55:6-11 Seek the LORD while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the LORD, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon. "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," says the LORD. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts. "For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there, But water the earth, And make it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower And bread to the eater, So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
Rain falls, coming from a place we don't know, and going somewhere we can't really know, and in the process the miracle of growth happens. Our lives grow the same way!
I'm not really supposed to be able to figure out HOW. That is what tripped up Adam and Eve. God already said they were like Him. Satan presented a different "how." That took them out of the guaranteed WHO that was making them like Him already!
Same is true for you and I. The same who is still who. We can still be tempted away from Him by imaging our own "hows" and trusting them instead of who.
I can believe God and, if I am not confident in who He is, I can impatiently gauge how I perceive His faithfulness based on HOW I think He should lead me. Sometimes I get so caught up in trying to figure out how God is going to keep his promises to me that I miss the basic fact that He IS keeping them.
Biblical faith isn't faith in how. Faith is faith in who. His how is always different than I imagine. The who of who God is always much more loving, concerned, present, and good than I already know.
He is bigger than His promises. The words He uses to convey them will always fall short of the poetic, awesome, and amazing way He keeps them. It is more than I could ask or imagine!God IS faithful. The more I let me eyes see that, the less 'how' in the future matters and the more 'He' in the present does.
Hebrews 11:6-9 NKJV — But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. 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. By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise;
Biblical faith is the door to Biblical patience. If can learn to enjoy God now, I don't mind waiting with Him as He works out the how that will later blow my mind! He always over-performs His promises. Always. This is how things grow: patient expectation of more life by opening our branches to the sun shining on us right now, taking in the nutrients from where we are standing right now, and letting the rain fall on us where we are right now!
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