Why Faith in God? Part 5

“One person's faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables.” (Romans 14:2 NIV) “For we live by faith, not by sight.” (I Corinthians 5:7 NIV) 

Notice what Paul has observed and discusses about an individual's faith. One person has enough faith to eat anything--probably because they ask God's blessing upon the food before they eat it, but another--who does not have faith to eat those foods which have supposedly been forbidden (various types of meat), they will only eat vegetables.

We are no longer under The Law with its restrictions and limitations and we know this because of what we're told in Acts regarding Peter--who staunchly attempted to hold the gentiles to Jewish Law. Remember the dream? (Acts 10) At any rate, what we learn from this is that nothing God has blessed is forbidden to us. We can eat anything--pork, beef, lamb, fish and seafood of all kinds--for nutrition, as long as we ask God to bless everything we eat. A number of people have long, drawn out blessings for food, but mine is simply, "Lord bless the food and my tummy, too." And then, I eat--my candy bar, pie, vegetables, seafood, whatever is sitting before me and know that nothing in the food will harm me and my stomach will not be upset by it. That's exercising faith. Note, I am not advocating people eat things they know that causes them an allergic reaction. Please don't mix faith with foolishness. I know I cannot eat watermelon because of my body's reaction to it, so I don't eat it. Exercise wisdom in all things.

However, for those who have not arrived as yet to exercise that kind of faith--they eat what they have faith to eat--and their  faith, works for them ("According to your faith, be it unto you."). And since so many people have delicate digestive systems, they need to eat accordingly in order not to get sick or stay sick. This is wisdom, not a lack of faith.

Now, we live by faith--not needing to see things before we believe it. We do it all the time. We have faith that our cars will start when we turn the key in the ignition, without seeing how the ignition system works. We have faith that the chair we sit on will hold us without inspecting it every time we get ready to sit. We have faith in getting paid for the work we do (if we're working) without seeing what is in the company's bank account. We have faith in the air we breathe even though we cannot see the oxygen we need to survive. We live faith all the time, not by sight, so why is it so difficult for some to have faith in God?

Some have argued that we are foolish to believe in an "invisible being" we have never seen. I disagree with this supposition. I have already mentioned the oxygen in the air we cannot see, but believe it is there. We cannot see a person's brains, but their brains are probably there. We cannot see the wind--we only see the results of the movement of the air.

Therefore, I see the results of God moving upon the hearts of people all the time and know He exists for all who believe!

Part 6 tomorrow!

Yield Not To Temptation!

"When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone;" (James 1:13 NIV).

And then James goes on to say that we are tempted by our own lusts (evil desires) and when one yields to the temptation, they yield to sin.

Some years ago, Flip Wilson used the phrase, " the devil made me do it" in his comic routine.  Many thought this was funny, especially within the context used. However, it is misleading. The devil does not make anyone do anything, any more than God will make anyone do anything. The devil tempts people to do evil and because they have evil desires, they give in to the temptation.

The enemy uses people to tempt others to land into the lake of fire with him. He influences people to murder, molest, abduct, coerce, mangle, manipulate, lie, cheat, steal, cuss, and commit all manner of disastrous acts that lead people deeper into the pit of no return. But they could not be tempted if the desire to do those things were not already present. Those desires begin with thoughts and if the thoughts are not changed, rapidly, they intensify until the thoughts are acted upon and havoc reigns.

If we want to avoid being tempted--by anything or anyone, we have to change our thought patterns before they become acts that cannot be reversed.

Some might say--they are stronger than that--they don't have to give in. I would encourage all to reflect upon the world events, historically, and recently, that have led to escalated violence and people being killed. All of the acts--began with a thought and thoughts ran rampant--completely unchecked until they became acts.

For change to occur in the world--it must begin with change in every individual's way of thinking--in a positive manner so we can all live in peace, without the threat of continual violence.

Perhaps, we should all lobby legislators to change the way they think--putting people first--above their own personal agendas. And then we should pray--in the privacy of homes and other personal space--and then "out loud" so the enemy will know what we're doing and put him on notice.

Don't allow the evil thoughts and desires to become acts of disaster and then try to claim--God tempted you to do it. He did not. The Word from God will only encourage us to live according to what God says--so we can live to see the promises fulfilled in our lives and to see our future--a future to prosper us and not harm us.

The devil doesn't do anything he was not created to do--and neither should we. We were created to be a praise unto our God and to give Him glory. Let's do it!