In my quiet time today, the Holy Spirit revealed something to me, and I would like to share it.
I was reading Psalm 91. In 91:4, God's Word says, "His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart." Well, that reminded me of Ephesians 6, the passage about putting on the full armour of God.
Ephesians 6:16 says, "In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one."
This led me to consider the word "faith." The definition that seems to be most accepted in Christian circles at the present time is: "belief without evidence." I think that once again, we have missed the mark by thinking that Faith is something that WE do; that it is just some thing we decide with our own will to grasp ahold of in the dark. Whenever we move the focus from God to ourselves, things are going to get jumbled.
After praying this morning, I heard the following definition of faith:
Faith is believing the TRUTH that GOD IS FAITHFUL.
To me, that seriously undermines the current trend defintion for faith. There is PLENTY of evidence of God's faithfulness. If we have a hard time remembering the evidence, maybe we have a thanfulness problem instead of a faithfulness problem. Thanking God for times (evidence) when he has been faithful strengthens our faith, as we remember the Truth that God is ALWAYS True to His Word. God does not call us to some "blind faith" with no evidence. We are to take up the shield of His faithfulness (Psalm 91). So Awesome!
I, personally, am going to make a more concentrated effort to start a gratitude/prayer journal of specific instances of God's faithfulness. That way, when I have trouble remembering, I can easily read it and avoid having to rely on my memory. God is faithful to extinguish those fiery arrows of the enemy. Take Him up on it! Praise be to God!
