Hymn Devotionals (5)
“Living
By Faith”
The Importance of FAITH
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ver
the centuries, thousands of Christians have sung the beautiful words of this
hymn, “Living by faith.” In the chorus we have sung: “Living
by faith, in Jesus above, trusting confiding in His great love; From all harm
safe in His sheltering arms, I’m living by faith and feel no alarm.”
This
is the way it should be, but we should ask ourselves the following questions:
(1)
Are we walking by
faith?
(2)
Are we walking by
faith or by fear?
(3)
Are we walking by
faith or by sight?
Most of us have been taught and know that
Christianity is a Way of faith!
We know that we must become Christians
by faith, because Jesus taught, “He who believes
and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe
will be condemned” (Mark 16:16).
We know that Paul wrote, “For by grace
you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,” (Ephesians 2:8).
We may have memorized the words from the
Book of Hebrews, “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder
of those who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6).
But we need to ask, “Does faith reflect our lifestyles? Do we practice
what we know to be the will of God?” Someone might respond by saying, “My faith
is strong until a real crisis comes into my life, and then I begin having
doubts!” This is living by a weak
faith.
The disciples of Jesus had faith in Him
while listening to His teaching on land. However, they lost their faith when
they were at sea and the raging waves were filling their boat with water. They
lacked faith when they considered that Jesus was in the stern of the boat on a
pillow asleep. At this point, their faith became so weak that they even
questioned whether Jesus cared if they perished in the sea. “Teacher, do You
not care that we are perishing?” (Mark 4:38).
Jesus must have been deeply hurt by their
response. For after He brought a calm to the storm by speaking the words, “Peace
be still,” He said to
them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?” (Mark 4:40).
To
live by faith, the hymn teaches, doesn’t really matter what tomorrow will bring
into our lives. It may be shadow, sunshine, or rain.
All of us can be assured that things that
are both good and bad will come into our lives. However, those who are living
by faith do not need to worry, because the Lord rules over everything.
Christians
are not exempt from sickness, pain, hardships, loses, and bereavement! But when living by faith we believe
that the Lord will help us through all of these things. There are times when He
completely removes our burdens, but there are other times
when He does not remove
them, but helps us carry
the load.
For example, Paul asked the Lord three
times to remove the thorn in his flesh, but instead of removing it, the Lord
gave Paul sufficient grace to endure it (2 Corinthians 12:7-9).
When
we live by faith, we live today for the Lord, and then trust Him to take care
of the future. We will follow the
instructions of Paul: “For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die,
we are the Lord’s” (Romans 14:8).
Our daily song will be, “I know the Lord will make a way for me!”
Therefore,
as we live by faith, “we may boldly say: “The LORD is my helper; I will not
fear. What can man do to me?” (Hebrews 13:6).
The
hymn also states that the “Lord will return to this earth some sweet day.” No, He will not return to live again on
the earth, because at the Lord’s return “both the earth and the works that
are in it will be burned
up” (2 Peter 3:10). But the Lord will return
in a cloud to deal with those who are already dead, and those who are still
alive on the earth.
Paul paints a mental picture of this
awesome event in these words: “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose
again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we
say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the
coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord
Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel,
and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we
who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the
Lord” (1 Thessalonians
4:13-17).
The hymn closes its verses by expressing
what will happen when the Lord returns to those who have lived by faith: “The
master so gently will lead us away, beyond that blest heavenly shore.” This kind of
hope is worth both LIVING FOR and DYING FOR!
Therefore,
have you by faith repented of your sins, confessed that Jesus is the Christ, God’s Son, and
been baptized into Him? Then, from that day forward,
have you lived by faith? If your life is not right with the
Lord, you need to make it right now! —BBBristow