January 9
Genesis 25:27-28:5
True faith means we place our trust in God because of who He is. Conditional faith means we place our trust in God because of what we think He might be able to give us. We need to pause and honestly reflect on which faith we have. When sharing the gospel message to a person in the Hindu religion, many have absolutely no problem adding Jesus to their existing pantheon of gods that they believe in. But our God is not to be shared, He alone is God. Growing up in Brooklyn most people that I knew were either some Christian denomination (primarily Catholic) or Jewish. If asked, they often would say that they believed in God. But in reality their primary god is themselves. Their trust in, their hope in, the one that they seek to find solutions from is themselves. Most who pray do so in an additive way, meaning it can't hurt, maybe it can help. For those of us who are married, the first year is generally the most difficult as we truly enter into a relationship and learn to trust in one another. Most who profess to believe in God never go through this phase. Following external practices that they learned as a child, they continue to go through the motions but never actually trust God. Never spending time in His Word, never getting to know the God of the Bible, they never develop true faith. So most go on through life continuing to make the safe statement that they believe in God, when in reality they trust in themselves or others.
We observe a stark contrast in conditional vs. true faith in our Old and New Testament reading today. As Jacob flees Esau he has a dream, that many refer to as Jacob's ladder in Genesis 28:10-15. But notice Jacob's conditional trust that he is willing to place in God after this encounter in 28:20-21, "Then Jacob made a vow, saying, "If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, so that I come back to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God." This was an if...then vow, or a conditional vow. If God fulfills then he will trust. Contrast this with the leper in Matthew 8:2-3, "And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, "Lord, if you are willing, You can make me clean." Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, "I am willing; be cleansed." Immediately his leprosy was cleansed." The leper's faith was not conditional. He had full confidence in Jesus' ability to heal, he only wondered whether the answer to his prayer would be yes or no. We come next to a Gentile, a Roman Centurion who asks Jesus to heal his servant. When Jesus states that He will accompany him, notice the response of the Centurion in Matthew 8:8-9, "The centurion answered and said, "Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and to another, 'Come,' and he comes; and to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it." Jesus remarked upon hearing this and marveled, saying, in 8:10, "Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!"
As I started out saying, we should place our trust in God, not because of what He might give us, but because of who He is. One of the most important aspects of the One Year Bible Challenge is to open our eyes as to who He is. The Word of God is true. The history presented in the pages of Scripture reveal who He is. The overwhelming majority of individuals remain ignorant of who God is. Trusting in a religion, or the leader of a religion, their faith is often misplaced. Just like in marriage, how can we ever trust our spouses unless we invest the time to get to know them. How can we ever get to know God, unless we invest the time to get to know Him. When we pray to God, His answer might be: yes, no, or a delay. Though He is able to do more than we ask and exceedingly more, He also knows what is best for us, and His will is so much better than our feeble wills. In retrospect, we are so fortunate that His answer is sometimes, "No,", for if we got what we thought we needed, we would have been in a worse place than we are right now. So, as we continue to go through the words of Scripture, may we learn to place our trust and hope unconditionally in our God who is limitless and who loves us unconditionally.
Messages from Pastor Lloyd Pulley: