I have often shared with those I fellowship with that there is no real mystery to biblical faith. It is not dependent upon us to well it up with hard determined believing. It is initiated by and in Him. If He has spoken there is faith. If He has not spoken and revealed Himself there won’t be any.
Romans 10 8-18 reveals the nature of hearing the word and voice of the Lord. And Romans 10:17 is the only scripture telling us exactly how faith is initiated and comes.
[Romans 10:17 NASB95] 17 So faith [comes] from hearing, and hearing by the word of (or concerning) Christ.
The Greek for “word” here is rema (or rhema) which, although I am not a Greek scholar, I understand to be literally: that which is uttered by the living voice, spoken word. As such, it is a now and present spoken revelation of God.
Yes, it often comes through a preacher as the context suggest in places, but it can come in other ways as well as the reference to Psalm 19:4 and the revelation of creation there he touches upon in Romans 10:18 “THEIR VOICE HAS GONE OUT TO ALL THE EARTH, AND THEIR VOICE TO THE ENDS OF THE WORLD”
I have also shared many times these Kingdom principles found from Genesis to revelation regarding walking by faith:
The outworking of hearing is faith. The outworking of faith is obedience (to what He has spoken). The outworking of obedience is seeing the fulfillment of His purpose in all that He has revealed and spoken.
This brings me to the real point of my writing today. And that point is from Hebrews 10:36 “you have need of endurance”.
Walking by faith does not mean immediate sunshine and roses, complete perfection in change, and generally no immediate fulfillment and completion of promise.
It took Abraham 25 years to receive the seed of promise in Issac. He had to be beyond His own ability to make anything happen. And even then, 12 – 18 years later, he was tested on His immediate obedience to God’s voice and revelation, and seeing God’s provision (and foreshadowing of Jesus), when God spoke to him to sacrifice Issac that seed of promise.
So, the companion and side effect of faith is our need for endurance. Endurance in the face of challenges, temptation to sin and unbelief, and even seeming failure (…the Ishmael’s created and Peter’s denials of our experience of walking with Him) in learning to hear His voice clearly, trust it, and not lean to our own understanding.
[Hebrews 10:35-39 NASB95] 35 Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. 37 FOR YET IN A VERY LITTLE WHILE, HE WHO IS COMING WILL COME, AND WILL NOT DELAY. 38 BUT MY RIGHTEOUS ONE SHALL LIVE BY FAITH; AND IF HE SHRINKS BACK, MY SOUL HAS NO PLEASURE IN HIM. 39 But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.
Last week in this space I wrote of finding peace in the midst of life challenging us hard. I shared a bit of a recipe for finding peace that Paul gave to a Philippian church under persecution in Philippians 4:4-7.
A large part of that came from his encouragement in verse 5 & 6 that “the Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing….
I wrote: The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing.I have combined two phrases because one is dependent upon the other. Remember God, the LORD, is not far away. He is in the midst of this with you. He never leaves nor forsakes you. He is an ever present help in times of trouble. If we can, keep that one thing in mind. Anxiety is removed. Fear and Anxiety are not to have a great place in the life of a believer. We always have a hope (even beyond death and the grave) and our help is near, even present. Consider the psalmist’s plea in all of Psalm 42 when it seemed God was faraway, (here is a taste of it…[Psalm 42:5 NASB95] 5 Why are you in despair, O my soul? And [why] have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him [For] the help of His presence.)
But, inherent even in this is the understanding that, in the midst of challenges, endurance will be required as you Hope in God and what He has revealed and spoken to you of His love and purpose.
The writer of Hebrews admonishes “do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward” and then reminds us that endurance pays off in that reward; you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.
So, let us hold our faith in endurance to see the fulfillment of all that He has spoken and revealed to us.
The writer of Hebrews after outlining in Hebrews 11 those of great faith, in what is sometimes referred to as the Hall of Faith, follows up with this recorded in Hebrews 12.
[Hebrews 12:1-2 NASB95] 1 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
What a strong encouragement to endure the challenges of life and sin. But even more to endure even pain and suffering in Him to overcome. And, strong encouragement to see Jesus as our inspiration to do so.
If you haven’t, you must meditate on this phrase: “who for the joy set before Him endured the cross,”
For the JOY set before Him, He endured the cross! What was this joy? I think it was obedience to the will of the Father in order to see the purpose of the Father accomplished and fulfilled in it. Yes, the reward was to again sit down at the right hand of the throne of God. But, His true Joy was in the purpose of the Father revealed to Him. And, in doing the will of the Father in order to deliver to the Father His inheritance in the saints, and that we might all be sat down there with or in Him (Ephesians 1: 18, 20 and 2:6) .
So, looking to Him the author and perfecter of faith, fixed upon Him, let us not lose faith, confidence, in His purpose in us and with us. Let us encourage one another in the challenges that come… and in the victories that come as well
[Hebrews 10:23-25 NASB95] 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; 24 and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, 25 not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging [one another;] and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
Never give up on Him.
Never give up on yourself for and in His purpose.
Never give up on others for and in His purpose.
We have a hope in Him, and His love, and His revealed purpose and promise in Christ.
This week in counseling someone who felt the sting of failure once again I shared:
Failure is not what you’ve done. It’s only accomplished by not trying again from another direction or in another way. The Great Sam I Am (from Dr. Suess) finally sold even green eggs and ham not by overcoming objections/obstacles head on over and over, but by coming at them another way.
Some say you can’t fail if you don’t try. Not true! The truth is failure is only complete if you don’t try, or stop trying. It is defined only by giving up on yourself… and particularly by giving up on trying to find help in, by, and through those you love and that love you. Life is about relationships and not meant to be faced alone.
We are born into families for a reason… we seek friends and community for a reason. We are made that way… with a hole that can only be filled in a relationship with He that made us, and others we are (He places us) in relationship with. It’s why love never fails.