In Faith
We continue looking at Paul's words to Timothy - "Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith" (1 Timothy 4:12)
Philip Brooks defined faith like this: Forsaking All, I Trust Him. Isn't that a good way of thinking about faith? I think it's important for us to note that faith is not simply an intellectual belief in the existence of God, or a higher power, or something like that. Faith is direct trust in God, having given up trusting in anything else ultimately.
Are we setting the example for this, as Jesus-followers? Or do we seem to be much like everybody else - trusting in other things?
Trusting God Above All Else
There's a verse in the Psalms that says "Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God." (Psalm 20:7) That's faith. Abandoning the trust you have in material things and trusting in God. That's the example we want to set for the world – we want to be seen as people who aren't shaken when things go crazy in this world, because our faith is on a fixed and unmoveable figure - Jesus Christ!
One of the great classic holiness books is The Christian's Secret to a Happy Life. Listen to what Hannah Whitehall Smith writes: "A man, having to descend a well by a rope, found, to his horror, when he was a great way down, that it was too short. He had reached the end, and yet was, he estimated, about thirty feet from the bottom of the well. He knew not what to do. He had not the strength or skill to climb up the rope, and to let go was to be dashed to pieces. His arms began to fail, and at last he decided that as he could not hold on much longer, he might as well let go and meet his fate at once. He resigned himself to destruction, and loosened his grasp. He fell! To the bottom of the well it was - just three inches! If ever your feet are to touch the 'rock beneath,' you must let go of every holding-place and drop into God; for there is no other way. And to do it now may save you months and even years of strain and weariness."
Let Go and Drop Into God's Arms
I wonder if you are at the end of your rope, and you feel that you are about to fall down down down if you let go? If your faith is in Jesus, then there is no need to fear, friend! Because if you let go you will drop straight into His arms.
Maybe you are holding so tight to something so that you can control it and have it the way you want it to go, and God is longing for you to let it go and give it to Him in faith. What an example it will be to others, if you can say of your big burdens and worries and struggles, "they're tough, but I have given them to God and I believe He will use them for good."
