Faith: Choosing God's wisdom over our own ideas.

The Holy Bible is a great treasure of wisdom and truth about God, about life, and about eternity. For example, consider the following words of spiritual and practical wisdom:

"Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding." (Proverbs 3:5)

If you have a little trouble absorbing the meaning of older English, then look at the same passage in a newer translation: "Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight." (Proverbs 3:5, NRSV)

The whole attitude of faith in God is one of trusting when things make little or no sense to our own way of thinking. As human beings, we have ideas and a certain kind of understanding about how the world should work. Our understanding comes from the ways we happen to perceive things, and from the experiences we have.

But only God knows how all things truly work together. If we see a man walking atop a storm-tossed sea, we are shocked and maybe frightened. As we understand the universe, such things are impossible. But nothing is impossible with God, who knows all things and gives accurate meaning and reality to all of life. The perspective that God has is superior to our own.

When God says that a thing is true, then we can and should believe it, no matter how impossible or strange it might seem to us. When God calls us to a certain way of life and to a certain path of faith, we need to listen to that call and obey the Lord — even if it makes little or no sense at all to our rational minds. Why? Because God knows what is real and true about human nature, about life on earth, and about eternity itself.

The Bible, in many places, encourages us to believe God, to walk by faith, to be true to whatever God is saying — even when the whole world seems to be opposing God's message. The Bible makes it clear that God's ways and thoughts are better than ours. In fact, it says that very thing.

Through the ancient prophet Isaiah, God said: "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." (Isaiah 55:8,9)

Does it really matter?

But why bother with faith, anyway? Why not just do the best we can to understand and grapple with life? Certainly there must be a reward for those who are willing to fight their way through every obstacle, every difficulty and unsolved problem? If God is watching us, will He not think more highly of us when He sees our grim determination to rage right back at the storm, to take matters into our own hands, and to do whatever we must do to get to the top of the hill? Who needs faith, if we're willing to fight for what we want?

Reality isn't always what we might have expected. And the truth is, God does not reward stupidity.

There is a place and a time for human ability. I should do whatever is truly in my power to do. I'm able to produce a cup of coffee if I have all the things needed to do so. I'm able to earn a paycheck if my back and legs and hands — and brain — are in reasonable functioning condition. But I can't save my soul from destruction on my own. And I cannot, on my own, find a way to clear my life of sins already committed and from sins that I might commit today or tomorrow. I cannot buy or earn God's favor. All alone, I cannot change my own destiny. But I can choose not to accept a destiny I'm headed toward today.

I don't know the way to heaven. So I must follow the One who can take me there.

The Bible says that our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is more valuable than purest gold. It's valuable because it brings us new hope and real joy today. And it's valuable because it also prepares us for life in the eternal state that will follow this present earthly existence. In fact, the apostle Peter wrote, saying it this way: "for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls." (1 Peter 1:9)

The "saving of a soul" may not sound like a thing of great importance to the ears of our present culture. But you should know that a soul is a life. In the Bible, God is talking about rescuing our very lives from eternal destruction.

Human life as it really is.

We have the entire Old Testament, which is the larger portion of the Bible, to give us a history of humans doing what human beings do. Seen through the eyes of mere men, human life may appear very noble and worthy at times. But when seen through the eyes of God, we soon discover that we all fall short. Even the greatest heroes of the Bible fall short of perfect wisdom and nobility of heart and purpose. The Bible reveals that we're all sinners. We all need God's help.

Only one hero stands above human sin, human failure, human pettiness of heart and purpose. That one perfect hero was the Messiah of God, the Anointed One, the Everlasting Father and the Prince of peace. Today we call Him the Christ, the very Son of God. His name is Jesus.

A better perspective.

Because God can always see all things as they really are, He knew in eternity past — before the universe was even created — that we would get into so much trouble with sin that not one of us would be able to get clear of it again. And God might have decided to just not bother with creating us at all. Or He could have decided to make us without a will of our own. But even a dog has a will. What God chose to do, however, was to save us. He went ahead and created us with the ability to think, to reason things out, and the ability to choose. He also made us capable of exercising faith. Human beings have the ability to believe in what they cannot see or fully understand.

God also gave us His own Son.

For many centuries before Jesus was born, God was giving promises and glimpses of the salvation to come — a growing reason to hope. And then at the proper time, Jesus was born, entering human history. Jesus lived His life as a human being. And during the last three years or so of His earthly life, He proclaimed His message and He worked His wonders. Then, just as He had foreseen, Jesus was taken by force and nailed to a Roman cross, and there He died for the sins of all people. And after that, on the third day, Jesus overcame death, walking out of His grave to take His rightful place again at the Father's right hand.

Yet we walk by faith.

None of us who live today were around when these things took place. You and I were not there, in eternity past, when God foresaw human sin and determined our salvation. We were not there when Jesus was born or when He died on a cross. We were not there when He walked out of the grave, or when He later began to rise up into the sky, ascending into the very heavens, to take His place again at the right hand of God the Father.

All these things we must take by faith. We must all choose to either believe God and His message in Scripture, or to reject God and His offer of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ. There is no middle ground. It is a spiritual thing. We respond in faith to God's Spirit, which speaks to us through the gospel of Jesus Christ, or we reject that Holy Spirit, choosing to continue with our own way of thinking.

The same kind of thing is true for the Christian believer in every phase of life, and in every difficulty we face. We either choose to trust in God, following His wise and perfect counsel, obeying Him in the situations we face, or we choose to fall back into doing things our own way — doing "the best we can" with what we can see and understand. I think every believer has done a little of both. When we choose each day to walk by faith, we end up happier. God's blessings rest more fully on the faithful believer, because the sins of unbelief and disobedience are not there to hinder.

Life as a cup.

Think of your life as a cup. God is pouring out His blessings to anyone who will hold their cup under the flow. Unbelief tells us that we should be able to do whatever we want with the cup. After all, it's our cup. And unbelief also tells us that it's too dangerous to go and stand where God tells us to stand, or to hold our cup where God promises that the blessings will flow. But faith listens to God and follows whatever direction He gives. The result of unbelief is an empty cup most of the time. (We may accidentally wander under the flow once in a while.) But the result of faith is a cup that overflows with God's richest blessings — day after day, never ending.

God's message and intent.

The message of God in our generation is simple and clear and relevant: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, not leaning on your own way of thinking. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct (or straighten) your paths. (See Proverbs 3:5 & 6.)

God knows what He's doing. God tells the truth about what He's doing. God invites all of us to share in what He's doing. The choice is ours to make. To follow God requires faith because we can't always see the outcome from where we stand right now. The result of such faith in God is deep and lasting joy, and the rich blessings of God that will never end.

Does it still seem a little confusing?

Is it still unclear as to what God is calling us to do today? Well, God has made it very easy to choose the right path. (In fact, the Bible says that even a fool can't go wrong on the path of God's choosing.) To choose God's way, simply choose to follow Jesus Christ.

Jesus said of Himself: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." (John 14:6) That says to me that our first and best choice is to follow Jesus. He is the way to God, the primary and central truth of God, and the very life of God being offered to all people. He is the way of salvation. He is the way to God's best blessing today. He is the choice I should make every day.

Jesus said more about these things (for example, see John 8:12 & 12:46), but the main idea is that we learn from God to trust in Jesus (John 6:44,45) and that we then follow Jesus in order to know God's will and do it each day. God does not simply tell us to "make good choices" and to do the right thing. He gives us Jesus as the Shepherd and Teacher we need every day.

The Old Testament in the Bible shows us a lot of what people do wrong, even when they really want to know and serve God. The New Testament of the Bible shows us what it means to be true followers of Jesus Christ. The New Testament is the story of Jesus' own behavior and teachings, and also the full message of how the Christian faith should be lived out each day. Read it all and read it often. You will always be discovering new lessons and new help for your own life.

Follow Jesus. Trust in Him. Pay attention to His message and teaching. Spend time learning from the Bible the lessons and examples God offers us for daily life. And spend time gathering with other Christians who truly believe God and who've determined to follow Jesus.

What about today? Is there any help for where we are right now?

Today, when you have a choice to make, take the path of faith instead of the path of unbelief. Commit your ways to the Lord. Trust Him with everything. He will then give you sound wisdom and good instruction for your life. And you will be happier and greatly blessed.

As the Bible says: Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and don't simply rely on your own ability to understand. God has ways of doing things that you cannot see or comprehend. He will take care of the things committed to His care.

Trust in Jesus.

Jim