I wonder how much time a relationship requires to be
healthy. If I hope to maintain
friendships I must spend time with those friends. If I hope to stay healthy I must eat right
and exercise. If I desire something I
must work towards it. Faith and the
depth of it are no different.
If I wish for my faith to be deep I must immerse my life in
faith. If I proceed from the assumption
that my relationship with Christ is based on faith then I must ask what role
faith plays in every aspect of following Christ. I do
not want to belabor this too much but there are some very key phrases in the
New Testament concerning the place of faith in following.
Rom 14:23 But if a person has doubts and still eats, he is
condemned because he didn't act in faith. Anything that is not done in faith is
sin.
Gal 3:11 No one receives God's approval by obeying the law's
standards since, "The person who has God's approval will live by
faith."
Hebrews 11:6 No one can please God without faith. Whoever
goes to God must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who seek
him.
There is context behind all three of these verses that bears
reading. I am not pulling these out of
that context but rather the context in each case leads to these statements as a
conclusion. Since, therefore, faith is
central to following Christ I must give it the prominence it demands.
If my faith is to be deeper it must be a prime mover in all
that I do. My work, my play, and my
undetermined must all be governed by faith.
It makes the statement “in good faith” so much more powerful and
weighty. I must assure that any step I
take is done in good faith that I am taking it to follow Christ more
closely.
I must examine what this does in terms of my job. I must look at my writing in the shadow of
this. I must understand that free time
must be used in faith that I am following.
If in Christ I hope to live and move and have my being then I must acknowledge
that there are no secular issues. This
is a very hard but essential place to begin.
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