Confidently Confirm

How is your faith? Your personal faith, not your out loud faith, your church faith, your so your neighbor can see you faith. You’re own, individual, just with God Himself faith? My next few months will be spent in I & II Timothy during my quiet time. Doing what we do at ACO and what I’ve done since starting ministry these two book direct a lot of my actions. You know it, you’ve read it; chapter 1 of 1st Tim jumps straight into the fact that there are some people who’s faith is not really faith, but rather an explained way of thinking. Paul clears up any misunderstanding in Timothy’s mind quickly in verse 4, “God’s work…is by faith”. Simply to Tom that reads, if I’m not living by faith then I’m not doing God’s work. My faith needs to lead out. If something isn’t working, my faith needs to lead out. If my wife feels like life is falling apart around us, my faith needs to lead out. If my kid is having trouble with a friend at school or failing math, my faith needs to lead out. If my own relationship with the Lord seems stale, my faith needs to lead out. If….then my faith needs to lead out. HOW? How does my faith lead out in life’s circumstances? For me, I must remember that God is in control and my faith in Him begins my thinking, my obedience, my loyalty, my steps are ordered by His example. Yes, I know, its not rocket science, but when has faith ever been? Later in verse 7, “They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so CONFIDENTLY confirm”. So how is your faith? You only really know what you’re talking about when you’ve lived it. A friend on Facebook asked what wisdom was yesterday. Several of the responses dealt with experiences that created knowledge that could be passed on. Do you know what you so “confidently confirm”? Is your faith something that you’ve learned from your Sunday school teacher, your pastor, your small group leader, your parents or the daily devotional you read each day? Or is it yours? Is it warn into your skin, do you have callouses all over your body from living out your faith? I don’t! So many times I think, figure and scheme my way through life and use faith as my banner, not my baseline. (Your Sunday school teacher, Pastor, small group leader, parents and devotional are guides to shape your faith, but they cannot replace your own one-on-one relationship with your Father, the One whom your faith lies in. All of these are instrumental in helping you live out your faith, understand your faith, lead and encourage you in your faith. You need to be plugged into a Bible believing, solid teaching, life on life church.)