Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh, and strength to your bones.
Proverbs 3:5-8
One man said:
�Yep. Great verse. Why are you quoting it? A reminder or directive to trust God for everything? Ya, OK. But that doesn't mean not using common sense and the brain God gave us. Do we need food and water to live and have health and strength?? Of course, so we go to the grocery store and get what we need. We don't just sit back and wait for God to provide it...same thing for medicine.�
Hi. Let me tell you my point.
Faith is assurance that God can do anything�that He is Almighty and He controls our lives.
God expects this FAITH which not only is put somewhere in our heart but which transcends all limits and affects all areas of our life. Thus He says that FAITH without deeds/actions is DEAD like body is dead.
26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. James 2.
Let me illustrate. I talked to my ex-boy friend. I told him: �Scott, if we will not have food and job I will ask God to provide. If my God will not provide then I will embrace you and die with you, passing to the world of our Father. We do not lose anything. We just pass from one world to another where He is.�
Our God is everywhere. He is omnipresent, omniscient. This faith is assurance that He cares about me. It is His choice and decision to help me and protect me or not. We cannot affect His choices! They are HIS choices! We cannot make Him to give us food, money and job and marriage, health. These things are NOT under our control! If we cannot make Him to give them to us then WHAT can we do? We can ask Him, persuade Him and TRUST in Him. That is what our faith should do!
That is why if I do not have food, I ask God.
That is why if I do not have health and I am ill, I ask God to heal me.
That is why if I do not have husband, I ask God to provide him.
That is why if I do not have money, I ask God.
Why?
Because God PROVIDES! That is the name of the God of Israel �GOD PROVIDES�! That is exactly what is NOT under my control but ONLY UNDER HIS CONTROL!
Can God give me what I ask Him? Yes! I testify to you that immediately after my prayer He saved me from a murderer who kidnapped me and was going to kill me. I testify to you that immediately after my prayer He saved me from two murderers who came to rape my family and 3 years old child and burn us. My God is FAITHFUL to me! Always! That is why knowing His Faithfulness I will trust in Him even if I will die from hunger, illness, lack of money�.My Trust in Him will be evident in my ASSURANCE that He will provide and His judgment is righteous.
Can I get any job? Not always. I get it if ONLY God gives it to me.
Can I get a healing? Not always. I get it if God gives it to me.
Can I get married? Not always. I get it if God gives it to me.
So, I do what I can-> I TRUST in God. I ask Him. If His answer is No. I am content with it too.
Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Was it not stupid to kill his child because the voice he heard commanded to hill his child?! He took his knife and put it on the throat of his child to it cut off like he did it many times killing his sheep for food and sacrifices. Is it so easy to cut off throat of his beloved son? What did make his heart to offer his son as a sacrifice to an �unknown God�? This God was NOT unknown to him! Abraham realized that this God created the universe and Adam and Eva and destroying this human flesh this God is ABLE to RESTORE this flesh! That is all what Abraham knew and realized!
By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, �In Isaac your seed shall be called,� concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense. Hebrews 11:17-19
What is FAITH?
1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 3 By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. Hebrews 11
FAITH is Evidence of TRUTH...of the true information....I mean information which the Son of God/God gives us.
Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.
Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen.
Many of us believe that Africa exists but some of us were not there (I have been there). We just ACCEPT this information being assured that this information is TRUE!
The same way FAITH is assurance in information which God gives us. We accept it, believe it and ACT upon it!
We daily live by faith believing facts which we hear in the news or from people and even not checking this information!
What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. James 2:14-17
That is why we NOT only ACCEPT information with God gives us by FAITH but we IMPLEMENT what He says! He expects such faith from us. We believe that God provides and we ask Him to provide. He will decide to provide or NOT. But we keep our FAITH i.e. assurance that information which He gave us about Himself is TRUE! He will provide for us ALWAYS in this world and in any other world created by Him for us. We just TRUST to Him in what He says and we do that like Abraham did it.
Now we await a Heavenly country promised us by God! Why? Because God promised that to all who have FAITH in His Son Jesus! Just remember that faith DOES NOT SAVE US! Because our FAITH could be DEAD! But FAITH which is EVIDENT in deeds when we OBEY the God of Israel only SAVES us!
For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. James 2:26
Information NOT applied to our daily reality could be USELESS! Ponder! :angel:
Faith of Abraham
8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; 10 for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
11 By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised. 12 Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude�innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore.
The Heavenly Hope
13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. 14 For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. 15 And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.
"Hmmmmm....OK, so God would not want you to provide for yourself??"
- Every good gift is from God. You know Scott took a bank in the US because he was desperate?His father lost his job and could not pay for credit (they lost their house which almost belonged to them..They paid for house all their life?) and Scott cannot find a job for a long time. Only his old mother supports him with food?.He cannot provide for himself no matter how hard he tries?I understand this situation when I could not find job for more than one year. No matter how I asked God, I didn?t have job. We can smash our forehands on floor praying God to be millionaires and our situation will NOT be changed! We will not be millionaires! Even Christians die of cancer and in accidents! Why? Different reasons?.But what we know EVERY good gift is from God?even our job! Our food! Home! We look for JOB and GOD PROVIDES this job!
"That makes no sense. So, in your example with Scott....if God didn't miraculously "provide" for you, then you should die of starvation??"
- Yes, if no job and food should Scott and me took another bank in the US? I and he prefer now to die of hunger but not being separated by our sins from our God!
"This is plain foolishness. That might sound harsh, but it's true. We are still expected to use the brains and common sense God created us with. Otherwise, are we just supposed to sit back, be lazy, not use the supports, medicine, people He has placed in our lives??"
- We use medicine if GOD PROVIDES! Scott even cannot get medical help in the US! No medical insurance! How to get medicine? Uh? If God will place doctors in our life we accept that as a gift from God too! People die in hospitals too! Even if God will NOT provide good doctors, we could die in hospital! God PROVIDES!
"Not exactly good stewardship. If you do not have food, and yet there is a food bank to help out, how is that not God still ensuring your needs are met?? If you don?t have money, but you can work, why should God jump in???"
- 30,000 African children under the age of 5 die every day. Why so many people die in Africa and why God does NOT jump in? How can they provide food for themselves? Poor and uneducated people! Are they guilty that God gave them life in this poor place?! 1 child dies every 3 seconds in Africa! Not all of us can work! Not all of us can live! Not all of us have food! We cannot change this situation! Only Jesus will change it during His millennium Reign on our planet! But He already today commands us to START making these changes on His behalf SUPPORTING PEOPLE and giving MONEY to poor people!
"Seriously, God can and will provide and sometimes even step in miraculously...but it doesn't mean we shouldn't take steps and use whatever resources we have."
- Yes. Today we have to TAKE our resources given by God and TRANSFORM our life investing money to mission activities in Muslim countries, supporting poor people of Africa and our poor neighbors! We change the WORLD today! Like our God Jesus will do it soon after His return to Jerusalem! Come Lord Jesus!
God is our provider and healer. If He heals we are blessed. If we are not healed, then we re to be content. Healing comes from God. If medication or a doctor helps us to get better, than it was God's decision to do so and it is He who is healing and not a drug or a doctor. Drugs and doctors are limited to the authority and control of our Father. Many who seek healing from doctors and medication are not always healed, just as when we pray for healing we may not always experience the healing in our flesh. We need to be mindful of who our God is and remember that all good things come from God.
I did not know Christians do not use their common sense and brain. God gives us the ability to use our senses and brain. God does give us groceries stores and water. Of course, He may decide at times to withhold the money to go to the grocery store or the ability to take drugs or have good medical care. Many christians do not have the ability to do things that you call common sense or just go out and receive 'expensive' but good medical care. Many Christians do wait on God to provide supernaturally, same with healing. Many do wait on God and receive or are content in His love.
13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 Confess your trespasses[e] to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. 18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit. James 5
"Many christians do not have the ability to do things that you call common sense or just go out and receive 'expensive' but good medical care. Many Christians do wait on God to provide supernaturally, same with healing. Many do wait on God and receive or are content in His love."
You are RIGHT! Scott does NOT have ability to do things that you call "common sense". He is unable to go out and receive 'expensive' but good medical care! He does NOT have money and job! But he is a Christian and he TRUSTS in God daily! He is waiting on God to provide supernaturally! PLEASE brothers and sisters! Ask God in prayers to help Scott and provide for him all what he needs to complete his mission on earth as a heir of God! Please ask our Father today to help him and support him! Father, please help our brother Scott! Give him job, money, abundant blessings, faithfulness toward You and much fruits to bring You GLORY to Your Kingdom. Amen. Amen. Amen.
Amen Versava. I join you in this prayer. And I add that the Father continue to care for all of His sheep so that they may bring Him glory and honor. May He protect us from all hurt, harm and danger and heal us so that we can continue to do the work He has called us to do. Strengthen us Father that when you do see fit to withhold, that we learn to be content and continue to honor and praise you. Amen.
May we not look back to the corruption we escaped at our salvation, looking for answers from the world and trusting the ways of the world, but to trust our heavenly Father in ALL things.
Yes doctors/medicine is available. God has allowed this knowledge to be available. But let us put the Lord first as He is the One who makes all the decisions. He is the One who heals and provides for His children. Run to Him first. Seek Him first. Our Father is the #1 doctor and psychiatrist. Try Jesus.
