Now we are not to be concerned about our faith but rather with its ob ject. You see too often we are occupied with faith itself and not with the Word of the Lord Jesus Christ who is the object of our spiritual faith. We make the mistake of examining our faith, rather than the promises upon which we, in our faith, ought to be resting. If we were traveling a new public high way and we should approach a bridge, the strength of which we were not quite sure, would we stop to examine our faith in it or would we examine the bridge? Common sense, of course, "The Path to The Top of The Hill" We climbed the height by the zigzag path, And we wondered why—until We understood it was made zigzag To break the force of the hill. A road straight up would prove too steep. For the traveler's feet to tread; The thought was kind in its wise design Of a zigzag path instead. It is often so in our daily lives; We fail to understand That the twisting way our feet must tread By lo»e, alone, was planned. Then murmur not at the winding way; It. is our Father's will To lead us home by the zigzag path To break the force of the hill. —Anonymous would tell us to examine the bridge. You see, it is precious to know that faith, which is our possession, is the means erf victory urthis strange type of warfare. The flesh will offer strategy, human reasoning et cetera, 'but God says that it comes through another channel altogether. It comes through faith in Christ; faith in His Word, and faith in His omnipotent power. What is this faith upon which you and I happen to be leaning?
“For by grace are ye saved through faith.” There are many descriptions of faith but almost all of the definitions of faith that I have ever read, have made me understand it less than before I saw them. You may recall that it was the colored preacher who said, when he read the chapter before his con gregation, “I will confound it after wards.” Well, he meant that he would propound it to them. But, in a sense, it is very often true that instead of pro pounding, it is confounding. It is very likely that he did just that though he meant to expound the Scriptures. Now I ask again of you, what in actuality is faith? It is made up of three things: knowledge, belief, and trust. Knowledge always comes first. How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? You re member that Scripture declares that faith cometh by hearing. We must first hear in order that we may know what is to be believed and what is to be trusted. Psalm 9, verse 10 has this word: “And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee . . .” What does John mean as we look at the original text here, when he writes about overcoming the world? It is not to go about as a bully attempting to in-, timidate everybody that we meet. If such should be possible, that would be overcoming the world by the world. It is not to shut one’s self up in a monas tery somewhere, and have no contact with the outside world. “I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world . . .”, said the Lord Jesus Christ in His high priestly prayer. Overcoming the world is not compromising with it. Our victory is His victory, and we overcome the world by simply trusting in Him, and it is my prayer on your behalf that you and I together, spiritually before Him, may be trusting the Lord and our faith may be a strong foundation of our Christian lives before Him. 5
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