ROMANS 10:17

Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.

TO PONDER

I have been retired now for almost 7 years and my wife, Diane, and I have been living off our superannuation, money that we and our employers put into our superannuation fund while we were working. We cannot grow this fund, only use it up to cover our living expenses. Will we have sufficient money to live on until God calls us home? We have no guarantees. It depends on our health and unknown medical expenses, and how safe our money is in the superannuation fund.

The answer to this question about financial security also depends on what we have faith in. On the one hand, we can have faith in the world political and financial systems that our money won’t be dissipated by events beyond our control. Or we can have faith in God’s promise to always look after us, no matter what He allows to happen in our lives. This is not faith that God will protect our superannuation nest egg, but faith that even if it should be badly eroded or even vanish, that God will still be there beside us, guiding us in dealing with whatever happens.

Our faith in our eternal future is not that different. We can have faith in our goodness and how we try to keep God’s commands, and hope we have done enough to be accepted into heaven. Or we can have faith in all that God’s Son, Jesus, has done on our behalf to guarantee that our eternal home with our Heavenly Father is already now. However, this faith in what Jesus has done for us is not like a once-off measles injection, good for the rest of our life, it is more like the regular meals we eat, usually three times, every day. We need that regular quality time with our Heavenly Family to keep our faith healthy, and an important part of that quality time is immersing ourselves in the book containing God’s love story to us. (And, of course, spending quality time too with our brothers and sisters in Christ.)

Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you that You have given us all we need to know about you, all we need to know about what Jesus has achieved for us and all we need to know about living as your children. Please guide us in using that knowledge to trust where you are leading us in living out your purpose for us. Amen

Today's devotion written by Charles Bertelsmeier, LifeWay Epping