4 Challenges to Entering Wholeness

 

A.W. Tozer “Faith, as the Bible knows it is confidence in God and His Son Jesus Christ, it is the response of the soul to divine Character as reveled in in scripture;…” (Tozer, A.W. The Best of A. W. Tozer, Book 1. Wingspread; New Edition edition, 2007. Warren W. Wiersbe (Compiler) p. 172)

 

Combining faith with God’s word leads to wholeness.

 

road 5 640x427Hebrews chapter 4 speaks about the faith vacant response of the ancient Israelites and how we can be like them.  The reason they failed to enter the promise land, aka “rest” or “Wholeness”, was because they failed to combine faith with God’s word.

 

Hebrews 4:2 “For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them because they were not united by faith with those who listened.”

In my journey with Jesus, even after a long time in following him, I still struggle at times in combining faith with God’s word even though I understand it in my head.

 

4 of my personal challenges of combining faith with God’s word

 

a. Looking at life through the eyes of the situation and not Jesus.

 

I once heard a story of a professor who gave his students a piece of paper and asked them to write about what they see. On the paper was a small dot and the rest was white space. DSC01808 The student wrote as fast as they could and all wrote about the dot.  They focused in on the dot and missed talking about all the white space.  Sometimes we get so focused on the problem we fail to see Jesus all around.

 

b. Forgetting who I am

 

The apostle Paul often reminds those he is writing to of who they are.  He calls them to live out who they are in Christ.  If I am having trouble combining faith with God’s word, at times I am forgetting who I am in Christ.

 

c. Having to control everything.

 

We live in a day that pushes us to make sure we are controlling every element of our lives.  I can even have the arrogance in my life to think that if I dropped something everything is over.

There can be an attitude that comes up in this area of “look at all I did.”  Combining faith with God’s word is understanding “I do not have to control everything.” I still need to work, but combining faith with God’s word means some things are in fact in God’s control, not mine.

 

d. Fear as a driving force

 

Fear can drive so many of our lives.  Fear and shame are a direct result of sin in our life.  Now, there is a goodness in fear, but it is only to cause us to ask questions.

Questions like: is there a real danger?  Sometimes fear stops me because I am putting my faith in keeping my comfort or security or the illusion of power I may or may not have.  For many of us God is calling us to let go of fear and live.

 

Combining faith with God’s word leads to wholeness.

 

What about you? What keeps you from combining faith with God’s word?

 

Hebrews 4:16 “Lets us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need”

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