Established in the Faith

On the web today, if someone has a teaching, a church or a ministry many can watch things by way of the internet.  Gee, there’s not much you can’t find.  Yet right behind, it you’ll find those who pop up with their opposing viewpoints, arguments and debates.  So it’s no wonder that many can be confused or vacillate back and forth to one persuasion or another, sometimes not really being settled.

I’ve gone through that in my life.  At times it felt like being on top of a pendulum swinging sometimes to the left, right, back to the middle, etc.  Quite frankly that’s not fun and sure isn’t stable.

Is there then such a real thing as being “established in the faith” and according to his Gospel (which is the TRUE Gospel) as Paul calls it in the New and Living Letters?

And if so, how do you get there?

I say yes there is and the only reason one can be and can honestly be established in the faith, is through a complete reliance on the Lord who Himself is the Truth.  He has promised that His mind is life and peace.

Sometimes when I do not know something for sure, I still have peace – certainly NOT because I’m trying to figure it out, because all that does is bring unrest; BUT, because I’ve laid it at His feet, until His Spirit in me makes it absolutely clear.  When I do this, I have assurance, rest, and peace.  Again, it is not always because I in that moment completely know or understand.  Yet we KNOW how faithful the Lord is to want us to know Truth and Himself.

God is truly a Person whose presence in my heart is there to guide into all Truth and teach me continually ALL the riches of His Son, His great salvation, His personal shaping of my life into His image.

So I would like to get to the positive reality that is something I believe is for EVERY DAY of our lives and does not change:

1)      When I wake up, my need for reliance on the Lord within my heart is still 100% as much as the day before and the days ahead.  Therefore I can turn within where He dwells and talk to Him, renewing the Truth once again in my own heart and mind that He is my Life – without Him I do not “pull off the day!”  It’s more than this, I can be fed by His Spirit in my heart to be strengthened in what He’s taught me, wrought in me, and gain new insights to His Word and Salvation.

2)      Jesus is the AUTHOR and FINISHER of my faith in Him.  He is there to strengthen even my faith and inner man so that I DO look to Him and walk by His Spirit of Life in me to “pull off the day.”

3)      He wants me to be myself in Him and let Him be HIS SELF in me.  My SELF is dependent – His SELF is ALL Life, liberty, fruit, and wisdom.  My SELF has been wired by Him for certain gifting that He put there when I was born-again.  I need not feel guilty because I don’t run and jump and do everything under the sun when He is not leading me to do so. 

4)      He is FAITHFUL.  If I do not know what He wants or understand Him, He will be faithful to get through to my own heart and mind.  He is faithful IN me to help me understand spiritual truths/realities.  This makes relationship with Him even MORE personal and joyful as we get to know the ONE who dwells in our heart and we understand Him in us.

Those are just a few things.  I still have some things that are not answered for my own understanding – but He did show me to rest/rely on Him until I am either able to “see” it or He knows I am ready.    Actually, I do not know always completely, the reasons why I don’t get things right away!

I heard someone say recently, “You CAN TRUST the Lord.”  And he repeated it about 5 or 6 times.  I took that two ways – not only that you are ABLE to trust Him, but an excitement and thrill that He WANTS us to trust Him – an open invitation today and always.

“He will not fail, He must prevail, Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save!”

Sue Gaither