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Daily in Christ 3/31

March 31

THE OPERATING PRINCIPLE OF LIFE

Mark 11:22 
And Jesus answered saying to them, "Have faith in God"
 
The sun is perhaps the most credible object of faith for the world. It appears to be immutable. It has always been there, 24 hours of every day, 365 days a year. Without the sun, people couldn't live. If the sun didn't rise tomorrow morning, what would happen to the world's faith? All of humanity would be thrown into confusion.
 
If we have such great faith in the sun, why don't we have even greater faith in the Son who made the sun and all the rest of the fixed order of the universe?
 
Our faith is in God. Genuine faith is born out of a knowledge of the will of God and exists only to fulfill that will. Faith is not a means of getting man's will done in heaven; it is the means of getting God's will done on earth.
 
After hearing me speak on spiritual conflicts, a young man came by to talk about his personal life. He said he'd had several experiences of not being able to speak the name of Jesus aloud. I asked him about his faith. He thought he had made a decision for Christ years earlier in an evangelistic meeting. He tried living with some American Indians to continue his spiritual journey, but that proved to be disastrous. He finally ended up living in a pastor's home where he was helped with the assurance of his salvation. The pastor encouraged him to just go live by faith.
 
The young man said to me, "I've been trying to live by faith for three years, and it has been one trial after another."
 
"Faith in what?" I asked.
 
He didn't know how to respond. This young man was trying to live by faith in faith. But faith itself is not a valid object. The only valid object for faith is God and the revelation we have of Him in His Word. Faith is the operating principle of life. The only difference between Christian and non-Christian faith is the object. God must be the object of our faith.
 
Prayer: Lord God, I place my faith in You alone today. Help me not to allow anyone or anything to take Your place as the object of my faith.

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