Church Bulletin
Let God's Word Activate Your Faith
“Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the Word about Christ.” (Romans 10:17 NIV) Most of us aren't confident or courageous. Most of us are flat out scared to death. We're afraid to take risks, afraid of failure, and afraid of dying. We're not walking confidently because we're not people of faith. Do you want to be a person of faith? Faith is God's Word activated. The Bible says in Romans 10:17, “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the Word about Christ” (NIV). If you've ever read a verse in the Bible and all of a sudden thought, “I can do this! I can do this!” you've just had your faith activated by the Word of God. It's the difference between the Bible and self-help books. Self-help books often give you helpful insight. They can tell you the right thing to do, but they just don't give you the power to do it. Self-help books tell you that you should stop worrying or you should give up all your bad habits. Helpful, yes, but you don't have the power to keep the advice. Those books aren't alive. But God's Word not only tells you what to do; it gives you the power to do it. And it increases your faith as you do it. When I read the thousands of promises in the Bible where God says he'll act on our behalf if we obey him in some manner, it gives me confidence. I know that if I do what God asks of me, he has promised a certain result. I was depressed for most of 1993, when I had just moved to Perambur to start the ministry. I was exhausted emotionally, mentally, physically, and spiritually. I felt like I had a cloud over my head that I just couldn't escape from. I'll never forget some of the verses that really activated my faith, Exodus 23:29-30: “But I will not drive them out in a single year, because the land would become desolate and the wild animals too numerous for you. Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of the land.” God had promised the Israelites the Promised Land. They were going to go across the Jordan River into Israel and take on some tribes that were already living there. They didn't think they could do it. They thought the goal was too big. In Exodus 23:29-30, God is sayingto the Israelites, “You know these enemies? They're bigger than you. But I'm not going to give you the whole land in the first year. You're going to take it over a little at a time one battle at a time. You're growing stronger. When you're strong enough to handle it all, you'll get it all.” When I read those verses, it was like a promise coming directly to me. I realized I didn't have to accomplish it all in the first year. I'm going to spend the rest of my life serving Jesus Christ, and I'll do it on his timetable and at his pace. That understanding gave me confidence to take on enormous goals. The Word activated my faith. God's Word can activate your faith, too.
Talk About It
What do you want God to accomplish in your life? Do you believe that he will do it?
What do you think God wants to accomplish in your life? Are you confident that he will give you what you need to carry it out?
Which of God's promises are you claiming today?
CAN'T SEE THE FUTURE, RELY ON GOD
“He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way.” (Psalm 25:9 NIV) The Bible says there are several things we need to do to receive guidance from God, but the very first thing is this: We need to admit we need a guide! Most of the time we don't want to follow God. We want to go our own way. We don't want to admit we need direction or that we need a guide. Sheep, by nature, tend to wander off the path. The Prophet Isaiah says, “All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God's paths to follow our own” (Isaiah 53:6a NLT). Another thing about sheep is that they have poor vision. They can't see very far ahead. That's why they need a shepherd. God made you so that you would not be able to see into the future no matter how much you try. Why did God do this? He did it so you would depend on him. Proverbs 14:12 says, “There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death” (NIV). We've all made decisions that at the time seemed right but later on turned out to be wrong. Some paths lead to dead ends and we end up off track. That's why we need to admit, “God, I need help.”