fighting the good fight of the faith

Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

1 Timothy 6:12

One of the basic tenets of the Christian life is that we’re in a fight, a spiritual one. It doesn’t take long to learn that, and especially if you’ve lived long enough as a Christian, to be reminded of it. The enemy will challenge us in any way at every turn, though usually in more subtle ways, now and then, here and there, with the intent of crushing us, or getting us to veer off path.

They do this according to our weak points. Basically challenging God’s goodness and promises, and whether or not God loves us, and loves others. They are always challenging that, just like the serpent lied in such suggestions to Eve in the garden.

It doesn’t matter what seems so real to us at the moment if it’s questioning God’s goodness and greatness as in God’s ability to see us through along with God’s willingness. Such a suggestion is patently false, a plain bald faced lie.

God is good, God’s plan for the world is good, and God has shown that in his Son, whom he sent into the world, that we might live through him. And the only way we overcome in this world, and even overcome the world is by faith. We have to believe God’s promises and trust in him. We do that through prayer, earnest prayer, as well as remaining in God’s word. Holding on to faith. So that in the end we might be able to say with Paul, the same one who told Timothy to fight the good fight of the faith:

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

2 Timothy 4:7-8

In and through Jesus.

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how faith is confirmed

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.

By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.

Hebrews 11:1-4

Frankly, as far as I’m concerned, faith is a struggle in this life. It is challenged on nearly every turn. The great passage on faith in Hebrews 11 to the beginning of Hebrews 12 begins with the confidence and blessed assurance that faith brings along with how we know by faith. But it doesn’t end there. The rest of the chapter is about how people who had such faith lived. They acted on that faith.

I think faith normally involves a process. We pray and hear, or perhaps hear and pray; we respond with some kind of inner “amen” to what we believe is from God. And then we act on that prayer in some sort of specific way, even as we see in the many instances of Hebrews 11 (click link above). Certainly a changed life is involved, and is touched on in this passage when we consider Moses by faith forsaking the treasures of Egypt for a greater reward and seeing him who is unseen. But by and large the passage is filled with acts of faith.

It does no one any good to have some sort of, shall we say, feel good experience, or sense what they should do, unless it is acted on and done. It’s not at all like we should try to do something to either prove we have faith, or even bring faith about. Not at all. We need to be those who act from faith so that there needs to be some kind of confidence, assurance, and understanding which precedes such an act.

Yes, we should not be hasty. We should have a certain firm settledness in what we’re supposed to do. But then we must follow through and do it. Confident in God’s faithfulness, that God will see us through to the very end. As we await the fulfillment of all that our faith will bring, which includes the growth of our faith in this life, as well as good outcomes in God’s blessing through it. In and through Jesus.

 

no paradise here

But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.

2 Peter 3:13

Utopianism is the push to find, or more precisely, create the perfect place for people to live. It is an ideal striving in that direction to minimize risk and maximize safety and well being. The goal of a flourishing human community is good of course, and actually biblical in the vision from the prophets carried over into the New Testament of a promise of a new world to come, a new creation in which the old is made new.

We might as well face it: we live in a fallen world. The story in Genesis 1 through 3, then beyond, makes that clear. And it’s right in our faces day after day, week after week, year after year. There’s no escape. Money and the best that is known may help alleviate some of it for a time, but even that’s not foolproof. Life is good, and we should thank God for all the good we experience in it. But it’s uncertain. Actually, given all the problems, it’s remarkable it’s as stable as it is. I guess that depends on where one lives. Some areas are not as stable.

So we do well just to get on with it, and deal with the problems we face, hopefully one at a time, and learn to enjoy life in a world in which so much is not ideal. We learn to breathe the air of the new creation, which we look forward to in its completion. When all will be well. But until then we wait, and live in a world that is broken, our own brokenness included. And make the most of it, as we seek to live in God’s will in and through Jesus.

someday all the brokenness gone

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!”

Revelation 21:3-5a

It is hard to imagine an existence where there isn’t at least regular great struggle. And actually to cry in this life, and mourn with others is a blessing. We are given empathy through our humanity, or by the Spirit with our humanity, so that we can enter at least sympathetically, and hopefully with empathy somehow sharing their sufferings if by nothing else more than groaning and prayers, which itself is a great gift. And as Jesus tells us in his Sermon on the Mount:

Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.

Matthew 5:4

And in his Sermon on the Plain:

Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.

And:

Woe to you who laugh now,
for you will mourn and weep.

Luke 6:21b, 25b

So living fully in this present existence with all its pain and suffering is actually a blessing. That is where the Lord promises to be with us. Not in some safe existence free from all suffering and harm, or apart from the suffering of others.

And yet someday, blessed some Day, it will all be over. All the hurt, pain, wounds, brokenness, disappointment, sorrow, heartfelt grief, loss will be gone. “…no more death or mourning or crying or pain…” That is written to us in Revelation to be a comfort to us. We catch a glimpse of that now through the peace the Holy Spirit gives, and the help we receive in this life. But it is peace and help most often in the midst of adversity, suffering, and pain, and the inevitable trouble that accompanies this life. In the end, death.

Someday that will all be gone in and through Jesus.

grieving the loss of a friend

With sorrow I say goodbye to really the best friend in my life, other than my wife (and I have two great sisters). He was best in that he was a true friend through and through, though we kind of lost touch over the years. I was so honored to be best man at his wedding, and then he at mine. His wife Velda is special too, and all the family, a large one. I wish we would have lived closer to each other. All our lives end up being busy, and we lose track of good friends.

Ed, I can still hear your voice. You left a great legacy. Gone too soon. Will see you soon.

A psalm of David.

The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk
through the darkest valley,^[a]
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely your goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.

Psalm 23

Edwin R. Good’s obituary.

faith: it’s not psychological, but embedded in reality

Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.

Romans 4

I have noticed for my faith to take hold, I have to let go of thinking it depends on my own reaction or thinking. Not to say our reaction and thinking aren’t important, but that’s not the bedrock of or what’s behind our faith. If we’re depending on ourselves, good circumstances, fortune, whatever, other than depending on God, we’re leaning on a stick that will inevitably break. It is a false hope.

We either depend on God, take God at his word, and believe as in trust and obey, or we hang on to something of that kind of faith plus our own response. I often in my life have struggled to have everything lined up according to what I think is good, right, best, or acceptable compared to what is not acceptable or even considered bad, perhaps dangerous. I could trust in God as long as I was alright with everything myself. And I would seek faith in God to either get things alright, or accept the fact that things won’t always if ever be completely right. That last thought is getting us warm to the kind of faith we need.

The kind of faith we need is simply dependent on God and on God’s promises, period, end of thought. Not on anything else. And we find God’s peace in that. It’s not like we simply throw out our minds as being unimportant. God is concerned about the renewal of our minds, but that renewal involves a knowledge and acceptance of God’s good and perfect will (Romans 12:2). And it involves a commitment to trust in the Lord completely, and not on our own understanding at all (Proverbs 3:5-6). God’s peace transcending as in going above and beyond, leaving the other behind, so that in spite of whatever understanding we have, God’s peace can prevail (Philippians 4:6-7). I don’t mean to say our thoughts are not factored in at all. Read the Bible, and you’ll see otherwise over and over again, including in the life of our Lord during his life on earth. But our trust must be in God and the gospel alone as our foundation, with a willingness to let go of our own thoughts and fears, whatever, and really trust in God, instead.

So our faith is not psychological, but real, dependent on God no less, and God’s promises to us, in and through Jesus.

 

an encouraging promise

The lions may grow weak and hungry,
    but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.

Psalm 34:10

When we are sometimes literally hungry, but I have to think of the times I may be down and discouraged, such a text from God’s word can be a great help. This was true just the other day for me.

The promise is for those who seek the Lord. And what’s promised is certainly all that is needed. To not lack any good thing.

Ultimately we know that will be fulfilled in the life to come through the resurrection in Jesus, when heaven and earth become one at his return, and God makes all things new. But in some measure in some way, this is entirely true for this life, as well. We lack no good thing to not only survive, but flourish in this life. It is in the way of the Lord, the way of Jesus for us. So that we’re not talking about luxuries, and living it up. Even though at times we might experience some of that. And God has given us richly, all things to enjoy (1 Timothy 6). But we’re talking about the true riches, which just might include a contentedness to do without, in a happiness over what one has, instead of wanting what one has not.

And so this is a word of encouragement to me in the midst of difficulty and discouragement. To simply seek God, and be given all that I need to overcome and be at peace, in and through Jesus.