I was looking back through an old journal (from March, so not really that old) and found an interesting entry that I thought I would share. I had just read Luke 18:1-8 and wrote about faith. Here were my thoughts from that passage that day.
Jesus told a parable regarding how we should always pray and not lose heart. He ended by asking if the Son of Man would find faith on earth when He returned.
This makes me wonder: what does faith really look like? Obviously we must trust and believe in and on Jesus Christ, but this can’t be a statement only; it must be lived. How do we live out our faith each day? Do we go out in power believing and trusting the Lord’s will be done? Or do we go out hoping maybe today we will finally live up to our own expectations of what a “Christian” should be?
Unless we exercise the former, I don’t think we live in faith. We must move past our foolish notions of a morality, rules-based Christianity and walk humbly in the power and grace of the Holy Spirit, whom we have from God our Father (1 Corinthians 6:19). This is faith. This is that to which we must preserve to the end.
One Comment
Great post, Ryan! The concept of what faith truly looks like and is seems to be (thankfully) a constant conversation. I agree with your conclusion – we cannot limit the amazing gift faith is to our menial rules and logic, rather we must just walk, trusting His power, persevering to the end. Since this inherently takes out the checklist of rules and expectations (as a rules-follower, this is quite challenging for me), we are *forced* to communicate with Him directly. Developing our relationship with Him as a product of our perseverance, not a product of our well-intentioned logic.
It is definitely humbling that at the end of the Luke passage, Christ asked in question form, “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?â€. I know it is a question I should consistently ask myself…