Wednesday, January 3, 2007

Is Your Faith Worth Squat?

The tensions of this earthly life become unbearable in disobedience to the word of faith. But simple submission into obedience relieves the stress that the world, and disobedience impose. Doubt is crippling. Faith is empowering. Faith in action is victory! The Bible says that faith without works is dead. I have learned that faith with works (action) is alive. Faith without works (action) becomes an unfulfilled fantasy. For if I have faith that God is leading me but do not follow, my faith becomes doubt and my inaction leads to death, the death of my faith and the death of my dream. This is a horrible state in which to exist.

Unfulfilled faith creeps into one’s life like oil into water. It pollutes, leaving a nasty film, which ruins the purity of the water. Doubt solidified by inaction covers the purity of faith and renders it polluted, unfit, unusable, and something to be avoided. Faith activated by works (action) skims the doubt that covers the water of life, cleans it, and recovers the purity of the gift that obedience brings to fruition.

We must be doers of the word and not just hearers. It is so human to hear the word, rejoice in what we hear, then…. ponder. Pondering grows into procrastination, the tree that bears the poisonous leaves of inaction.

We must be like good soldiers and jump to attention, springing into action at the orders of our commander, the Lord. But what do we do? We hear the order, then squat to jump, but inaction and hesitation causes us to get caught in the squat and we fail to jump. What a sad sight, to see the army of the Lord squatting before Him! How undignified!

Better to jump and fall than be stuck in the squat. The squat is a horrible place to stay. You can’t sit down. You can’t rise up. You can neither rest in your success nor stand in the knowledge of a job well done. Go ahead and jump! You can ask how high on the way up! Better to relieve the tension and stretch in the jump than the constant strain of being stuck in the squat. Obedience in the jump is the better way. Disobedience isn’t worth squat!

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