seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matthew 6:25-34).
The Lord is not suggesting that we have faith and not worry about the material things of this life; He is COMMANDING IT! God wants our time to be His and not moved by trivial, worldly and temporal distractions. He said we could gain the whole world and forfeit our soul by amassing possessions and forgetting to have faith in God. He wants us to be perfect like the heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48).
Yes our faith seems to be constantly challenged. Perhaps challenged isn’t the right word. God is constantly expanding our faith. “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance [steadfastness]. And let endurance [steadfastness] have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, [mature] lacking in nothing” (James 1:2-4).
Steadfastness means: “consistent, immoveable, constant, firm, persevering, sure, true, unflinching, stable, unfaltering and never failing,” to name a few (Merriam-Webster’s Thesaurus) We need to be mature as Paul described: “…until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming;” (Ephesians 4:13-14).
Jesus Himself said: “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock [a solid steadfast foundation] “And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. “Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. “The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall” (Matthew 7:24-27).
Why do we continually have to be reassured by God or others to have faith? Why is it that God can speak a Word to our hearts and we can go away with unbelief as to whether that Word is really true? God wants us to believe steadfastly so when rains or storms arise we don’t run and hide like children but we stand mature in His faith.
Paul said: “Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory” (Colossians 3:1-4). And in the same Book: “He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach—if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister” (Colossians 1:22-23).
We always seem to want to move off what we have heard. In Paul’s day he battled ministers who would come into the church (or in our case into our thoughts) with various religious doctrines contrary to the true gospel. Many presented religious rituals such as circumcision, diets etc. which, they said, had to be performed if you were to be made perfect. Paul said: “If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!” (Which all refer to things destined to perish with use?)—in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence” (Colossians 2:20-23). `
Paul is forced here to reassure the Colossians of their freedom in Christ; free from legalism and rituals. Entry to His Kingdom is by faith, not by works so that man could boast and say “I did it”. Christ has already done it for you yet many believers still think they have to do works to earn salvation. If you are in His rest (Hebrews 4:1-16) then you need to no other works in order to gain favor with God.
Christ’s is a spiritual kingdom. It is not of this earth. : “Jesus answered [to Pilate], “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm” (John 18:36).
Do we need our faith reassured? Christ called the disciples “oh ye of little faith”. Christ has commanded no boundaries on our faith. The disciples asked Christ why they couldn’t cast out a demon from a man. Jesus responded: “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you” (Matthew 17:20). We can have unlimited faith even if it seems to be a small amount in our estimation.
The point of this article is that we carry this unbelief with us, in our lives. This is a hindrance to our walks with God. Unbelief in Christ is the most deadly of sins. When we say unbelief we are not speaking of not believing that we are saved and are going to heaven. The faith we are speaking about is the active miracle faith that can only come from God. Paul was absolutely convinced of the validity of his faith. “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39). Likewise we do not need to have our faith constantly reassured. We are convinced of our faith which leaves no room for unbelief.
The Second Golden Grace
1 Corinthians 13:13 says: “But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love”. As believers we seem to be more familiar with faith and love but do not realize the power that hope can have in our lives. Actually these so called “Three Golden Graces” are levels we attain as we walk with God. We first come into a level of faith, then hope and finally the perfect level of love, the love of the Father completely manifest in our lives.
Hope in Greek is ἐλπίς [elpis /el•pece/]. From a primary root elpo (to anticipate, usually with pleasure) there are 54 occurrences. The AV (KJV) translates the word as “hope” 53 times, and “faith” once. Hope is an expectation, a joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation, the thing hoped for. Hope is closely related to trust [ἐλπίζω [elpizo /el•pid•zo/] and is translated trust 32 occurrences. It means to “wait for salvation with joy and full confidence”.
In Hebrew the word is תִּקְוָה, תִּקְוָה [tiqvah /tik•vaw/] translated as “hope” 23 times, “expectation” seven times, “the thing that I long for” once, and “expected” once; also hope, expectation, ground of hope, things hoped for and outcome or manifestation.
Hope is a virtue wrought in us by God that very few people speak about, nor do they sense the importance of. Yet great things can happen in your life through the hope that God generates within you. An example of hope is found in Romans Chapter 8: “And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly [hope] for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for
