The Trial of Your Faith (Part 3)

 

Seek First His Kingdom
God says that we are to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. We can therefore be sure that HE is seeking that for us in His dealings with us. This means that God wants to bring His rule and His order and His will into our lives, and not only adjust our lives in accordance with Himself, but more importantly, God wants to adjust US. We are to seek HIS kingdom IN US first – in our thinking, perception, attitudes, and motivation. And ultimately, the kingdom of God means God is in charge. Not us. But God. He is in charge, through Jesus Christ, of everything about us.

 

Do you and I actually believe that we are easily geared to that? You might think you are, if again -- you assume that all I am talking about are doctrines and following the right list of rules and laws. But I'm talking about more. I'm talking about a COMPLETE RECONSTITUTION of what makes you tick – your self-life and your motivation – even with regards to the things of God.

 

We must get this settled: What God wants to do in us through the Holy Spirit is OTHER THAN what we have ever experienced. Indeed, in the beginning, we have absolutely NO FRAME OF REFERENCE for it. We can't. It is NOT of the natural man, and he can know nothing of it. Thus, when God begins this work, it is going to seem strange. In fact, it is going to seem as if God is tearing us down, not building us up. It will seem like things are getting worse, not better.

 

Well, they should seem like that. God is tearing us down. But this is good. Our control of our own lives is something that God is going to tear down, and our control is going to get worse as to it's effectiveness. For a time, possibly a long time, it may seem as if we are LESS obedient, and LESS holy, and LESS a Christian. That is because God is tearing apart the FAÇADE of Christianity we have constructed, so that He has replace it with reality in Jesus Christ. And because we don't, at first, know that, it is going to seem as if we are falling apart, not being built up in Christ.

 

The trial of faith is geared to dismantling every bit of confidence we have in our selves – our RELIGIOUS SELVES – so that our faith will shift over to Jesus Christ. Thus, we see that a trial of faith will not only PROVE the faith we already have, but if we will hang in there, all of our false faith in false things will be exposed, and we will be able to be adjusted over to Jesus Christ.

 

You and I have no clue as to just how self-righteous we are, nor a clue as to just how much faith we have in things other than Jesus Christ. In fact, we are so used to living by faith in other things, and this is so normal to us, that the moment God puts His hand to those things, we are terrified. We are terrified because we see ONLY the thing God is touching and trying to pry loose from us – and those things are ALL we have known. To us, the loss of such things is negative and something BAD that is happening. Indeed, some of us even think that what we are losing IS THE REAL THING, and IS OF GOD.

 

The key therefore, is to come to the place where we see the OTHER SIDE of things – to see, not only what God is taking us FROM, but to see WHERE God is taking us to. He is drawing us into a relationship with Christ that we could not have imagined.

 

Excerpted from : THE TRIAL OF YOUR FAITH by David A. DePra at THE GOOD NEWS  © 1998-2005. All rights reserved. (Please include this line to forward the message).