Faith Of Jesus

There is an old song that is going through my head right now.  Here is the first verse: 

You have longed for sweet peace,
And for faith to increase,
And have earnestly, fervently prayed;
But you cannot have rest,
Or be perfectly blest,
Until all on the altar is laid. 

 

The refrain goes:   "Is your all on the altar of sacrifice laid? Your heart, does the Spirit control?  You can only be blessed,  and have peace and sweet rest, as you yield Him your body and soul."                          

 I found it on the website  TimelessTruths.org   by doing a search.   It's a wonderful song.  We need to often ask ourselves this question, have I given everything to God?  Has my life in every detail, with all my plans, been placed on the altar? 

            My dear friends, as it is written:  "The just shall live by his faith."  (Habakkuk 2:4)  This text is quoted by the apostle Paul in Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11 and Hebrews 10:38, except he just says:  "the just shall live by faith".   I would encourage you to look up all the texts.   The question we need to answer is:  who does the word "his" apply too?  Is it my faith?  Do I live by my faith in God?  Do I "put my faith in God"?  If so then I will fail.  Those who are victorious in the last days, those who remain faithful to God no matter what, are those who  "keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus".  (Revelation 14:12) 

            I have nothing, nothing at all, except what I have been given.  And Jesus is the source of all.  Galatians  2:20  says:  "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."  This is a text we are probably familiar with, but note especially the part I underlined.  This is the conclusion we are to reach, because just before this in verse 16 we are told twice that it is the faith of Jesus, not our own, that we are to have:  "Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ...."  

            In 1 Corinthians 4:7 we are asked:   "What do you have that you did not receive?"  And in Romans 12:3 we read:  "God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith."

            I must have HIS faith.  The faith of Jesus is the faith I must have.  If I will give myself completely to God, then Jesus will be mine.  He will live in me.  And as I look at His life I will better understand the experiences God is giving me because He is seeking to reproduce in me the life of Jesus. 

            We are coming into the time in earth's history when everything is being prepared for the events of the end of this earth as we know it.  Everywhere we turn we are being shown that no longer can we take anything for granted.  We are warned by God that "the experts" will be saying:  "all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation." (2  Peter 3:4)  That is, the world is making steady progress upward and is improving.  Yet anyone with an open mind can see that things are getting worse than they have been in the past.  Whether it is in society, the weather, nature, or people's attitudes and characters.  So the question becomes:  What can I count on, who can I trust,  is there anything I can believe in? Everyone is looking for a solid foundation.  Something to live for.  Someone to count on.  

            God is making it evident we can only count on Him. The prophecies in His word have been and are being fulfilled.   "Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee."  (Psalm 73:25)  Since God does not force our belief, we must live by faith.  There is plenty of evidence, but it is only "proof" to those who choose to believe.  God arranges it so we have to make a choice, a free choice.  So we come back to our original text,  "The just shall live by his faith."   It is my faith, but it is only saving faith if I have surrendered myself to Jesus and am living by His faith.  I do not trust in myself, but I trust myself fully to the hands of Jesus.  God is love, and everything He does is because He loves me and is trying to prepare me to live with Him forever.