Are you a Christian? Do you have faith in Jesus? You do? Good! I’m glad to hear that.
But… is that really true?
What do you spend your life pursuing? What are the things that need to happen in order for you to have the life you want, or deserve? What are the things that you think need to happen for the country to be what it ought to be, or the world?
If there’s something in any of those slots other than Jesus- I’m concerned you’re not really understanding fully what faith is.
Faith means trust, means belief, means that when Jesus says He’s going to do something, that He’s really going to do it. That when Jesus tells us something is true, that we really believe it.
And what has He promised? What has He told us?
What it is that He has promised is to fix all the problems. He promised to give us eternal life, to make all things new, to transform the world. He promised to rule at God’s right hand until every enemy is put under His feet. He promised to be with His people forever. He promised that His Father in heaven would meet every need, would preserve you from every danger, all the way to the end. He promised to rule the nations with a rod of iron until every knee bows and every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord.
So, is that true? Do you believe that is true? If you do, then why are you agitated about money, about your health, about your relationships, about the election? And if you believe that, why do you forego learning more about Him and drawing close to Him to pursue other things?
Faith in Jesus is not something that just fits one of the empty slots in your list of anxieties and worries. Jesus is not the one who takes care of the concern over what happens when you die. He’s the one who takes care of the concern about your upcoming mortgage payment and the promotion at work and upcoming Presidential election and your relationship with your wife. All things are working together to accomplish His purposes. All authority is given to Him. Not a sparrow falls outside of the will of your Father in heaven. And that means there’s only really one thing that matters, and that is that you draw closer to Jesus, trust Jesus, learn about Jesus, and commit to following Him with all your life. That’s what faith in Jesus actually means.
Our faith is weak, and frequently falters. By God’s grace it’s not the strength and purity of our faith that saves us, but it’s Jesus’ perfect righteousness that saves us. The faith that saves is a faith that really trusts, and as we grow in that faith we’ll have less and less room in our lives for any competing affections, hopes, or fears. We’ll seek Jesus when we work, when we go on vacation, when we go to the polls or whatever we do. We will seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and lay aside all worry about all the other affairs of our lives.
