James 1:1-4

When people confide to me that they are praying for patience, I often ask what else they’re doing to acquire a calm and gentle heart. Patience isn’t so much something believers receive as it is an attribute that they develop over time and through experience.

Think of patience as a muscle that you have to use in order to see it build. To that end, believers should recognize difficulty as an opportunity to flex their patience. The human instinct is to cry out to God in bewilderment when tribu-lation comes knocking. We blame. We resist. We complain. What we don’t do is say, “Thank You, Father–it’s time to grow in patience!” People aren’t trained to think that way, but according to the Bible, that is exactly how Christians are to respond.

James tells us to consider trials a joy (1:2). But we often fail at this, don’t we? Humanly speaking, praising the Lord for tribulation is unnatural. However, doing so begins to make sense to believers when they cling to God’s promise that good comes from hardship (Rom. 8:28). We are not waiting on the Lord in vain. We can praise Him for the solution He will bring, the lives He will change, or the spiritual fruit He will develop in us.

Accepting hardship as a means of growth is a radical concept in this world. Even more extreme is the believer who praises the Lord for the storm. But God’s followers have cause to rejoice. Tribulation increases our patience so that we can stand firm on His promises and await His good timing.

“Faith is believing what you want to believe, yet cannot prove.”

Sadly, many people, including some Christians, live with this definition of faith. For some it feels liberating. It means being able to believe in anything you want to believe. No explanation is required, indeed, no explanation can be given; it is just a matter of faith. For others, such a definition is sickening. Embracing faith means you stop thinking. As faith increases, reason and meaning eventually disappear. No explanations can be given, and none can be expected. Thus, living in faith is living in the dark.

For both groups, the problem is the same. By starting with the wrong definition of faith, they have asked the wrong question, are dealing with the wrong problem, and so have ended up with the wrong answer. Faith is not wishful thinking. It is not about believing in things that do not exist. It neither makes all things believable nor meaning impossible.

So what is the right definition of faith? “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen,” writes the author of Hebrews. A few verses later faith is similarly defined as knowing that God exists and that God rewards those who earnestly seek Him.

Perhaps the best word we can use to translate the Greek word “pistis” (usually translated faith) is the word “trust” or “trustworthy.” Suppose you tell a friend that you have faith in her. What does that mean? It means two things. First, you are sure the person you are talking to actually exists. And second, you are convinced she is trustworthy; you can believe what she says and trust in her character.

It is in this way that the writer of Hebrews talks about faith in God. Faith is knowing that God is real and that you can trust in God’s promises. You cannot trust someone who isn’t there, nor can you rely on someone whose promises are not reliable. This is why faith is talked about as the substance of things hoped for and as the evidence of things not seen. Both words carry with them a sense of reality. Our hope is not wishful thinking. Faith does not make God real. On the contrary, faith is the response to a real God who wants to be known to us:

“I am the Lord, and there is no other;
besides me there is no god.
I arm you, though you do not know me,
so that they may know, from the rising of the sun
and from the west, that there is no one besides me;
I am the Lord, and there is no other” (Isaiah 45:5-6).

Ever since the church began, the refrain has always been the same: Come, believe, follow the light of the world. It has never appealed for people to leap into the dark; no such invitation is found anywhere in Scripture. Instead, we are called to step into the light. The Christian gospel is not a message that revels in ignorance. It is the revelation of God in the person of Christ, so that we might know there is no other. The Christian is called to see things as they really are, and not as she would simply like them to be. We trust in a God who has been revealed to us in the Son and the Spirit. We believe because God is real.

The Christian gospel invites you to delve into reality. It commands you to be honest in your commitment to know that which is true. Is Jesus real? Who did he claim to be? Is he really alive today? Faith comes in response to knowing the answers to these questions, even as Christ is calling you near. But don’t stop after the initial introductions! Just as you are able to put more trust in someone as you grow to know him, so faith increases as you grow in your relationship with Christ. There is a God who is real and true; there is a God who is near and longing to gather you nearer. The great joy of the Christian faith is found in the person who invites us to trust and believe.

Michael Ramsden is European director of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in the United Kingdom.

Morning  “God, even our own God.”  Psalm 67:6

It is strange how little use we make of the spiritual blessings which God gives

us, but it is stranger still how little use we make of God himself. Though he is

“our own God,” we apply ourselves but little to him, and ask but little of him.

How seldom do we ask counsel at the hands of the Lord! How often do we go about

our business, without seeking his guidance! In our troubles how constantly do we

strive to bear our burdens ourselves, instead of casting them upon the Lord,

that he may sustain us! This is not because we may not, for the Lord seems to

say, “I am thine, soul, come and make use of me as thou wilt; thou mayst freely

come to my store, and the oftener the more welcome.” It is our

own fault if we make not free with the riches of our God. Then, since thou hast

such a friend, and he invites thee, draw from him daily. Never want whilst thou

hast a God to go to; never fear or faint whilst thou hast God to help thee; go

to thy treasure and take whatever thou needest–there is all that thou canst

want. Learn the divine skill of making God all things to thee. He can supply

thee with all, or, better still, he can be to thee instead of all. Let me urge

thee, then, to make use of thy God. Make use of him in prayer. Go to him often,

because he is thy God. O, wilt thou fail to use so great a privilege? Fly to

him, tell him all thy wants. Use him constantly by faith at all

times. If some dark providence has beclouded thee, use thy God as a “sun;” if

some strong enemy has beset thee, find in Jehovah a “shield,” for he is a sun

and shield to his people. If thou hast lost thy way in the mazes of life, use

him as a “guide,” for he will direct thee. Whatever thou art, and wherever thou

art, remember God is just what thou wantest, and just where thou wantest, and

that he can do all thou wantest.

 

Evening  “The Lord is King forever and ever.”   Psalm 10:16

Jesus Christ is no despotic claimant of divine right, but he is really and truly

the Lord’s anointed! “It hath pleased the Father that in him should all fulness

dwell.” God hath given to him all power and all authority. As the Son of man, he

is now head over all things to his church, and he reigns over heaven, and earth,

and hell, with the keys of life and death at his girdle. Certain princes have

delighted to call themselves kings by the popular will, and certainly our Lord

Jesus Christ is such in his church. If it could be put to the vote whether he

should be King in the church, every believing heart would crown him. O that we

could crown him more gloriously than we do! We would count no

expense to be wasted that could glorify Christ. Suffering would be pleasure,

and loss would be gain, if thereby we could surround his brow with brighter

crowns, and make him more glorious in the eyes of men and angels. Yes, he shall

reign. Long live the King! All hail to thee, King Jesus! Go forth, ye virgin

souls who love your Lord, bow at his feet, strew his way with the lilies of your

love, and the roses of your gratitude: “Bring forth the royal diadem, and crown

him Lord of all.” Moreover, our Lord Jesus is King in Zion by right of conquest:

he has taken and carried by storm the hearts of his people, and has slain their

enemies who held them in cruel bondage. In the Red Sea of his own

blood, our Redeemer has drowned the Pharaoh of our sins: shall he not be King

in Jeshurun? He has delivered us from the iron yoke and heavy curse of the law:

shall not the Liberator be crowned? We are his portion, whom he has taken out of

the hand of the Amorite with his sword and with his bow: who shall snatch his

conquest from his hand? All hail, King Jesus! we gladly own thy gentle sway!

Rule in our hearts forever, thou lovely Prince of Peace.

 

Blessed is the one who stays awake.   Revelation 16:15

“I die every day,”1 said the apostle. This was the life of the early Christians; they went everywhere with their lives in their hands. We are not at this time being called to pass through the same fearful persecutions: if we were, the Lord would give us grace to bear the test. But the tests of Christian life, at the present moment, though outwardly not so terrible, are still more likely to overcome us than even those of the fiery age.

We have to bear the sneer of the world—that is small; its flatteries, its soft words, its oily speeches, its fawning, its hypocrisy are far worse. Our danger is that we might grow rich and become proud; we might give ourselves up to the fashions of this present evil world and lose our faith. Or if wealth does not test us, worldly care is quite as mischievous. If we cannot be torn in pieces by the roaring lion, we may be hugged to death by the bear.

The devil cares very little which it is, as long as he destroys our love for Christ and our confidence in Him. I am afraid that the Christian church is far more likely to lose her integrity in these soft and easy days than in those rougher times. We must stay awake now, for we are crossing enchanted ground and are most likely to fall asleep to our own ruin, unless our faith in Jesus is a reality and our love for Jesus an ardent flame. Many in these days of easy-believism are likely to prove to be tares, and not wheat; hypocrites with attractive masks on their faces, but not the true-born children of the living God.

Christian, do not think that these are times in which you can dispense with watchfulness or with holy ardor; you need these things more than ever, and may God the eternal Spirit display His omnipotence in you, that you may be able to say, in all these softer things as well as in the rougher, “We are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”2

11 Corinthians 15:31 2Romans 8:37

The family reading plan for April 26, 2012

Song 1 | Hebrews 1