~ The Power of Believing the Truth ~
“When people struggle with their faith in God, it is not because their
faith object has failed or is insufficient. It is because they don’t have a
true knowledge of God and His ways. They expect Him to respond in a certain way
or answer a prayer a certain way—their way, not His—and when He doesn’t comply
they say, ‘Forget you, God.’ The problem is not with God. He is the perfect
faith object. Faith in God fails only when people have a faulty understanding
of Him.” (110)
“[Regarding James 2:17,18] In other words, really believing will
affect one’s walk and one’s talk. If we believe God and His Word, we will live
accordingly. Everything we do is essentially a product of what we have chosen
to believe.” (112)
Anderson gives a list of rhetorical questions based on biblical truths
(similar to what Paul does in Romans 6):
“Why should I say I can’t when the Bible says I can do all things
through Christ who gives me strength (Philippians 4:13)?
Why should I worry about my needs when I know that God will take care
of all my needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus (Philippians
4:19)?
Why should I fear when the Bible says God has not given me a spirit of
fear, but of power, love and a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7)?
Why should I lack faith to live for Christ when God has given me a
measure of faith (Romans 12:3)?
Why should I be weak when the Bible says that the Lord is the strength
of my life and that I will display strength and take action because I know God
(Psalm 27:1; Daniel 11:32)?
Why should I allow Satan control over my life when He that is in me is
greater than he that is in the world (1 John 4:4)?
Why should I accept defeat when the Bible says that God always leads
me in victory (2 Corinthians 2:14)?
Why should I lack wisdom when I know that Christ became wisdom to me
from God and God gives wisdom to me generously when I ask Him for it (1
Corinthians 1:30; James 1:5)?
Why should I be depressed when I have hope and can recall to mind
God’s loving-kindness, compassion and faithfulness (Lamentations 3:21-23)?
Why should I worry and be upset when I can cast all my anxieties on
Christ who cares for me (1 Peter 5:7)?
Why should I ever be in bondage knowing that there is freedom here the
Spirit of the Lord is (2 Corinthians 3:17)?
Why should I feel condemned when the Bible says there is no
condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1)?
Why should I feel alone when Jesus said that He is with me always and
He will never leave me nor forsake me (Matthew 28:20; Hebrews 13:5)?
Why should I feel as if I’m cursed or have bad luck when the Bible
says that Christ rescued me from the curse of the law that I might receive His
Spirit by faith (Galatians 3:13,14)?
Why should I be unhappy when I, like Paul, can learn to be content
whatever the circumstances (Philippians 4:11)?
Why should I feel worthless when Christ became sin for me so that I
might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21)?
Why should I feel helpless in the presence of others when I know that
if God is for me, who can be against me (Romans 8:31)?
Why should I be confused when God is the author of peace and He gives
me knowledge through His Spirit who lives in me (1 Corinthians 2:12; 14:33)?
Why should I feel like a failure when I am more than a conqueror
through Christ who loved me (Romans 8:37)?
Why should I let the pressures of life bother me when I can take
courage knowing that Jesus has overcome the world and its problems (John
16:33)?” (115-116)
“Have you ever thought God is ready to give up on you because, instead
of walking confidently in the faith, you sometimes stumble and fall? Do you
ever fear that there is a limit to God’s tolerance for your failure and that
you are walking dangerously near that outer barrier or have already crossed it?
Many Christians are defeated by that kind of thinking. They believe God is
upset with them, that He is ready to dump them or that He has already given up
on them because their daily performance is less than perfect. It is true that
the walk of faith can sometimes be interrupted by moments of personal unbelief,
rebellion or even satanic deception. During those moments, we think God has
surely lost His patience with us and is ready to give up on us. We will
probably give up if we think God has. We stop walking by faith in God, slump
dejectedly by the side of the road and wonder, What’s the use? We feel defeated, our purpose for being here is
suspended and Satan is elated. [But] the primary truth you need to know about
God for your faith to remain strong is that His love and acceptance are unconditional.
When your walk of faith is strong, God loves you. When your walk of faith is
weak, God loves you. When you are strong one moment and weak the next, God
still loves you. God’s love for you is the great eternal constant in the midst
of all the inconsistencies of your daily walk.”
(116-117)
“One reason we doubt God’s love is that we have an adversary who uses
every little offense to acuse us of being good-for-nothings. Your advocate,
Jesus Christ, however, is more powerful than your adversary. He has canceled
the debt of your past, present and future sins. No matter what you do or how
you fail, God will still love you because the love of God is not dependent upon
its object; it is dependent upon His character. Because He loves you, He will
discipline you in order that you ‘may share His holiness’ (Heb. 12:10).” (119)
~ You Can’t Live Beyond What You
Believe ~
“Your Christian walk is the direct result of what you believe. If your
faith is off, your walk will be off. If your walk is off, you need to take a
good look at what you believe. Suppose you began your Christian walk just 15
degrees off in your teenage years. You are still in the fairway of life, but if
you continue to live the same way for many years, life may start to get pretty
rough and eventually you may find yourself out of bounds. That is the classic
midlife crisis. You though you understood well what constituted success,
fulfillment and satisfaction, but now you are discovering that what you had
believed about life wasn’t quite true. The longer you persist in a faulty
belief system, the less fulfilling and productive your daily walk of faith will
be. Walking by faith simply means that you function in daily life on the basis
of what you believe. In fact, you are already walking by faith; you can’t not walk by faith. People may not always
live what they profess, but they will always live what they believe. If your
behavior is off, you need to correct what you believe because your misbehavior
is the result of your disbelief.”
(123-124)
“It should be obvious by now that God’s basic goal for your life is
character development: becoming the person God wants you to be. Sanctification
is God’s goal for your life (see 1 Thess. 4:3). Nobody and nothing on planet
Earth can keep you from being the person God called you to be. Certainly, a lot
of distractions, diversions, disappointments, trials, temptations and traumas
come along to disrupt the process. Every day you will struggle against the
world, the flesh and the devil, each of which are opposed to your success at
being God’s person. [But the Bible] teaches that the tribulations we face are
actually a means of achieving our supreme goal of maturity [Romans 5:3-5; James
1:2-4]… Is there any easier way to being God’s person than through enduring tribulations?
Believe me: I have been looking for one. I must honestly say, though, that it
has been the dark, difficult times of testing in my life that have brought me
to where I am today. We need occasional mountaintop experiences, but the
fertile soil for growth is always down in the valleys of tribulation, not on
the mountaintops.” (133-134)
~ God’s Guidelines for the Walk of
Faith ~
“As far as the devil is concerned, the next best thing to keeping you
chained in spiritual darkness or having you live as an emotional wreck is
confusing your belief system. He lost you in the eternal sense when you became
a child of God. If he can muddy your mind and weaken your faith with partial
truths, however, he can neutralize your effectiveness for God and stunt your growth
as a Christian. We have already determined that God wants you to be successful,
fulfilled and happy. It is imperative for your spiritual maturity, though, that
your beliefs about success, significance, fulfillment, satisfaction, happiness,
fun, security and peace be anchored in the Scriptures.” (138-139)
God’s Way of Success. “Notice
that [in 2 Peter 1:3-10] God’s goal begins with who you are on the basis of
what God has already done for you. He has given you ‘life and godliness’;
justification has already happened and sanctification has already begun. You
are already a partaker of the ‘divine nature, having escaped’ (past tense)
sin’s corruptions. What a great start! Your primary job now is to adopt God’s
character goals diligently—moral excellence, knowledge, self-control,
perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and Christian love—and apply them
to your life. Focusing on God’s goals will lead to ultimate success: success in
God’s terms. Peter promises that as these qualities increase in your life
through practice, you will be useful and fruitful and you will never stumble.
That is a legitimate basis for a true sense of worth and success, and nobody
can keep you from accomplishing it! Notice also that this list does not mention
talents, intelligence or gifts that are not equally distributed to all
believers. Your identity and sense of worth aren’t determined by those
qualities. Your sense of wroth is based on your identity in Christ and your
growth in character, both of which are equally accessible to every Christians.
Those Christians [who] are not committed to God’s goals for character are sad
stories of failure. According to Peter, they have forgotten their purification
from former sins. They have forgotten who they are in Christ… Success is accepting
God’s goal for our lives and by His grace becoming what He has called us to
be.” (140-141)
God’s Way of Fulfillment. “Fulfillment
in life can be summarized by the simple slogan, ‘Bloom where you’re planted.’
Peter said it this way: ‘As each one has received a special gift, employ it in
serving one another.’ (1 Pet. 4:10) Fulfillment is discovering our own
uniqueness in Christ and using our gifts and talents to edify others and to
glorify the Lord… God has a unique place of ministry for each of us. It is
important to your sense of fulfillment that you realize your calling in life.
They key is to discover the roles you occupy in which you cannot be replaced,
and then decide to be what God wants you to be in those roles. For example, of
the six billion people in the world, you are the only one who occupies your
unique role as husband, father, wife, mother, parent or child in your home. God
has specially planted you to serve Him by serving your family in that
environment. Furthermore, you are the only one who knows your neighbors as you
do. You occupy a unique role as an ambassador for Christ where you work. These
are your mission fields and you are the worker God has appointed for the
harvest there. Your greatest fulfillment will come from accepting and occupying
God’s unique place for you to the best of your ability. Sadly, many miss their
calling in life by looking for fulfillment in the world. Find your fulfillment
in the kingdom of God by deciding to be an ambassador for Christ in the world.” (143-144)
God’s Way of Peace. “The
peace of God is internal, not external. Peace with God is something you already have (see Rom. 5:1). The peace of God is something you need to
appropriate daily in your inner world in the midst of the storms that rage in
the external world (see John 14:27). A lot of things can disrupt your external
world because you can’t control all your circumstances and relationships. You can control the inner world of your
thoughts and emotions, however, by daily allowing the peace of God to rule in
your heart. Chaos may be occurring all around you, but God is bigger than any
storm… Personal worship, prayer and interaction with God’s Word enable us to
experience the peace of God (see Phil. 4:6,7; Col. 3:15,16).” (147-148)
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