A Steadfast Faith

Deuteronomy 31: 8 The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged."

We live in a faithless world. There is little to trust; little to believe in. The promises of the world are empty and hollow. The cumulative effect can weigh against our spirit, even as Christians. But while we are called to live in the world, we are not called to be of the world.

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12: 2

But the patterns of this world can still seep into our lives. They can still taint our thinking and if pervasive enough, can shake our faith. But the key verse above serves as a reminder from God Himself for why we should have the faith we do and why we need to hold onto that faith, even in the harshest of storms. True faith does not need to know more than what God is currently showing us. True faith does not see, or feel, or hear. It is not sensory in nature. It just believes. It just trusts. True faith sees only the next step God wants us to take and then takes it regardless of how we feel, what we see, or how we think. That is a renewed mind. The world wants to see proof. The world demands discussion and debate. The world asks "why." There is no debate in faith because faith is the answer to the question why.

Working backwards in the verse we see that God is very well aware what the primary two tools the enemy will use to shake your faith are; fear and discouragement. When we are afraid, we lose sight of God. When God is on the throne of our lives there can be no fear:

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. 1John 4:18

God is perfect love and when He is on the throne of our lives He drives out fear. Sound overly simplistic? Most Biblical truths are. It is man that makes things more difficult than they need to be. Over-analysis leads to paralysis. Not only that but we can be assured that when we fear, that fear is of the enemy because it is not of God:

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. 2Timothy 1:7 (KJV)

God did not give us any spirit of fear. But it still can invade our thinking and shake our faith. We could fear about the future and where we are going, the present and how we will get by, or the past and what we have done. God is telling us hear in the key verse that we should not be afraid! It is not a subtle verse either this is a command from the Lord! Do not be afraid!

Similarly, God knows the other favorite faith-shaking mechanism the enemy uses is discouragement. The Christian walk is just that, a walk. It is long and can be treacherous. That is because while we walk with God, we still walk through the world, which we no longer belong to. We still have desires that are tied to the world. We still have careers that are tied to the world. We still have families that are tied to the world. It takes a sustained commitment to remain faithful to what we believe when the storms of life come against us. Discouragement can set in when we feel God is taking too long, or prayers seem unanswered, or we see ourselves still struggling in the world.

In regards to struggles, Jesus never promised us we would not struggle in this world, in fact, He promised the opposite:

"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." John 16:33

One of the misconceptions we can have is once we are saved, all our problems go away! That is not true. Jesus here clearly warns us that we will have trouble in this world. But we must take heart beloved, even within that trouble. Why? Because Christ overcame the world through His resurrection and the Spirit that raised Him from the dead now dwells on the inside of us! Instead when the trials of this world come against us too often we can lose heart instead of taking heart. Why? Because we trust what we see instead of what we believe. We trust what we feel instead of what we have placed our faith in.

In regards to unanswered prayer there is no such thing. God hears and answers all prayers. We may not like the answer all the time. We may not understand the answer all the time. We may not hear the answer because we are so set on hearing what we want to hear but do not doubt for a second that God hears and answers all prayers:

The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles. Psalm 34: 17

We may not like the method of deliverance, the time the deliverance takes, or the end result may not match up to what we thought it would look like but once again, that is where our faith must be active in our lives. Our faith need only see the next step. God sees all. God knows if that promotion you are hoping for will help or hurt you. God knows if that relationship you are hoping for will work for His glory or not. You cannot allow the enemy to speak the spirit of discouragement into your hearts just because your prayer did not work out as you had hoped. God still knows better. That is faith.

In regards to God taking too long; He never does. God is always exactly on time. He is never late and never early. I am sure that Joseph must have thought God was a bit late when he spent 13 years in prison for something he did not do but God knew Joseph was there. God knew what He was preparing Joseph for. Joseph would ascend to the Prime Ministership of Egypt and be the person God would use to deliver the Israelites from a deadly seven year famine. But Joseph had to come to grips with a lot of issues, such as being sold into slavery by his brothers and being betrayed into prison by Potiphar's wife. If he had escaped after only seven years, he would not have been equipped to be the Prime Minister. He would not have been ready to lead. God stepped in at just the right moment and He does the same thing in our lives as well. Faith is believing that while we cannot see God at work, we know He is. Faith is knowing that God knows better and will step in at the right time according to His will, not ours.

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Hebrews 11:1

It is the opposite of what the world espouses. The world demands proof faith believes. Going back to the key verse, God tells us two things He will never do and these are reasons why He says we should not fear nor be discouraged. He will never leave us, nor forsake us. While similar, leaving can imply temporarily. Sometimes we can feel as if God is somehow more distant from us than He once was. An often heard Christian saying reminds us that if you feel God is more distant, it wasn't God who moved.

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. Psalm 91:1

If you want to rest in the shadow of God, you must choose to dwell in His shelter. You must choose to seek a relationship with Him through Prayer. You must choose to cultivate that relationship through reading His Word. God will never leave you beloved. He is always right where you left Him, waiting for you to come back and dwell in His shelter again.

Similarly, God also assures us that He will never forsake us either. The dictionary defines forsake as:

To quit or leave entirely; abandon; desert

So, where leaving may imply a temporary status, forsaking is more permanent. God is promising us here that He will never leave us entirely or abandon us. Sometimes we can place our own human shortcomings on God. We think that if somehow we fall so short of His glory that He will somehow walk away from us. Untrue:

if we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself. 2Timothy 2:13

God will always remain faithful beloved. It is one of His attributes. He will not leave us, nor forsake us and commands us that we should not be afraid, nor discouraged. Concluding the examination of the key verse, God also promises two things He will do. He will always go before you and will always be with you. What a glorious promise to base our faith on! No matter what situation we might be heading into, God will always go before us. God will always lead the way. King David walked in that confidence and reminds us that the result is an unshakable faith:

I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Psalm 16: 8

While God will always go before us, we also must learn to set God before us. That is the faith part of it. David knew that God always went before him but he needed to remember that and have faith in that. He set the Lord always before him. The result of which is that his faith was unshaken. That should be the type of faith we seek as well. If God Almighty goes before us into any situation, how can we be shaken?

What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? Romans 8:31

Who indeed? The enemy? He may be armed with fear and discouragement but we are armed with faith. We just need to wield it effectively. We need to know that fear and discouragement are not of God. We need to know that He will never leave us nor forsake us. We need to know that He goes before us in every situation and lastly, that He is with us as well.

Not only does God go before you beloved but He is right there with you. As David said, He is at your right hand. But we are sensory beings sometimes and we can tend to believe what we see instead of what we know; what we believe. Therein lies the problem. We need to develop a deeper and more intimate relationship with God so that we can sense Him better in the storm. We need to lead an active prayer life, communicating with our Lord and Savior. We need to be reading His Word, to gain His insight, to learn His precepts. Then when the enemy comes at us with visual discouragement and fear, we just reach to our right hand for the God we have placed our faith in and our faith will win the day.

God goes before us. God is with us. He will never leave us; nor give up on us. He is faithful when we are faithless. He has commanded us to not listen to the lies of the enemy. He has commanded us to not fear because our faith is in He who is not of fear. He has commanded us to not be discouraged because our faith is in Him who is always on time, always answers prayers in our best interest and has already overcome the very world which is trying to shake our faith. But the enemy has already lost. Our faith is steadfast. God is on the throne.

Reverend Anthony Wade June 3, 2009