The Proof of Genuine Faith

S - 1 Peter 1:2, 6-8 (NLT): "God the Father chose you long ago, and the Spirit has made you holy. As a result, you have obeyed Jesus Christ and are cleansed by his blood. May you have more and more of God's special favor and wonderful peace. … So be truly glad! There is wonderful joy ahead, even though it is necessary for you to endure many trials for a while. These trials are only to test your faith, to show that it is strong and pure. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold--and your faith is far more precious to God than mere gold. So if your faith remains strong after being tried by fiery trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world. You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him, you trust him; and even now you are happy with a glorious, inexpressible joy."

O - Faith is never proved genuine by what it obtains. It is only proved genuine by what it endures. This is because the focus and dynamic of faith is all about the Lord's person, not his activities. Genuine faith will be a reason for the Lord to do many things, wonderful and impossible things, on earth, in us and through us. It will require us to think, act and speak in certain ways but these ways are not a formula to obtain but rather the expressions of fierce personal loyalty to the Lord and to his greatness, to loving him back and staying called to his purpose come what may. Faith in Jesus is simply that - a vibrant trust in the person unto the glorious and inexpressible joy of his relentless love.

A - I am in a particularly intense season of following and believing, of seeking and asking of acts of obedience followed by acts of God and if God doesn't act I'm cooked. I am inspired and provoked by my history with the Lord and what I believe he has put in my heart to do with him. Currently I am in the "in between" of having left the boat but not yet completing my stroll on the water with him. I am asking and believing for his activity - no doubt in this. However along the way and in the ways of his work (and from my perspective delay) I am, we are, enduring. This enduring, this believing through the pressure and unknowns and fears is the proof of genuine faith. When, and I do mean WHEN the Lord does what I believe he has planned to do we will be "singing and dancing" but our receipt of this will not be the proof of our faith but a result of it. All things really are possible to him who believes but faith is only proved genuine in him who endures.

P - Lord who endured and who still endures,

Thank you for this day and my assignment in it. Thank you for this season which is both proving our faith as genuine and bringing about your will on earth as it happens in heaven. Thank you for the partnership of believing you. I do praise you for your written voice and for your speaking voice. I do love you back and pledge myself to your purpose even when I don't know what it is or don't like how it is currently unfolding into my life. Lord, you are the Lord and I yield again today to your awesome brilliance, unlimited power and extreme goodness. Lord I believe, help thou my unbelief:),

Steve