Quote from Forum Archives on October 31, 2003, 8:21 am

Posted by: masinick <masinick@...>

Dear friends,

In addition to patience, courage, and wisdom, faith is a point at
which our relationship with God is closely examined and put to
the test. This message from the Oswald Chambers' My Utmost For
His Highest explains. May God's Spirit fill our hearts, test and
examine our faith, and bring us to the place He desires for us -
a deep and personal relationship with Him.

Yours in Christ,
Brian

October 31

The Trial of Faith

If you have faith as a mustard seed ... nothing will be
impossible for you --Matthew 17:20

We have the idea that God rewards us for our faith, and it may
be so in the initial stages. But we do not earn anything through
faith--faith brings us into the right relationship with God and
gives Him His opportunity to work. Yet God frequently has to
knock the bottom out of your experience as His saint to get you
in direct contact with Himself. God wants you to understand that
it is a life of faith, not a life of emotional enjoyment of His
blessings. The beginning of your life of faith was very narrow
and intense, centered around a small amount of experience that
had as much emotion as faith in it, and it was full of light and
sweetness. Then God withdrew His conscious blessings to teach
you to "walk by faith" ( 2 Corinthians 5:7 ). And you are worth
much more to Him now than you were in your days of conscious
delight with your thrilling testimony.

Faith by its very nature must be tested and tried. And the real
trial of faith is not that we find it difficult to trust God,
but that God's character must be proven as trustworthy in our
own minds. Faith being worked out into reality must experience
times of unbroken isolation. Never confuse the trial of faith
with the ordinary discipline of life, because a great deal of
what we call the trial of faith is the inevitable result of
being alive. Faith, as the Bible teaches it, is faith in God
coming against everything that contradicts Him--a faith that
says, "I will remain true to God's character whatever He may
do." The highest and the greatest expression of faith in the
whole Bible is -- "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him" (Job
13:15 ).

Oswald Chambers was born in Scotland and spent much of his
boyhood there. His ministry of teaching and preaching took him
for a time to the United States and Japan. The last six years of
his life were spent as principal of the Bible Training College
in London, and as a chaplain to the British Commonwealth troops
in Egypt during World War I. After his death, the books which
bear his name were compiled by his wife from her own verbatim
shorthand notes of his talks.
www.gospelcom.net/rbc/utmost/

=====
--
Brian Masinick, mailto:masinick@yahoo.com
Home page: www.geocities.com/masinick/

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