Guidelines For Living

Guest (Male): Take a break from your busy schedule and join Harold Sala for Guidelines for Living.

Harold Sala: Faith, alleged the agnostic Samuel Clemens, also known as Mark Twain, is believing what you know isn't true, but wish it were. George Mueller would not have agreed. And who was George Mueller? In the event that name doesn't register, let me explain briefly.

As his name suggests, Mueller was born in Prussia. He began his education in the classics at a German university. Invited to the home of a friend, he heard a man drop to his knees and pray in such a way that he was deeply convicted and eventually was converted.

Mueller spent most of his life in Christian work. But unlike many people today, he never asked anyone for money. Not once. His secret was faith in God. He actually believed God for the means of feeding and clothing more than 10,000 orphans. Mueller wrote, "Faith is the assurance that the thing which God has said in his word is true, and that God will act according to what he has said in his word. This assurance, this reliance on God's word, this confidence is faith."

Okay, Mueller says that faith is not walking in the dark, but acting on the promises of God's word. But this even presents us with a problem: how do you find the courage to act on what you already know, at least mentally? For example, in this marvelous book the Bible, there are dozens, hundreds of promises, marvelous things which God has said he would do. But for many of us, there is a gulf between what we believe theoretically and what we do, what we put into practice in our lives.

Now part of the problem is that we tend to make the Christian life far more complex than it really is. We know far more than we do. We soon discover that the real struggle is often a matter of our will, wanting to be completely in control of our destiny instead of resting in the promises of God and simply doing what we know we're supposed to do.

It is little wonder that God allows our faith to be tested, for only then can we be sure that indeed God has met us at the point of our need. We all want the blessing of God's deliverance; who wouldn't? But it takes the testing to help you know that God is there and that he will keep his promise.

Human nature though being what it is, we'd just as soon skip the challenge, right? We prefer deliverance without going through the fire and flood. We're much like the people who lived in a certain area which was flooded by a river that had overflowed its banks. The government sent in helicopters to take the people out, the people whose homes had been inundated by the water.

Chopper after chopper left with full loads of people. "How many people are there around here?" somebody finally asked. They began counting. More than 135 people had been airlifted, but only 78 people lived in that village. "Hey, what's going on?" asked the sergeant in charge of the evacuation. The folks there so much enjoyed the helicopter rides that they were coming back by small boats so they could have another helicopter ride out of the area.

Okay, what's the point? When you face periods of testing, faith is holding onto what you know is true and walking in the light which God gives to you. No, you won't understand everything, but you will keep on trusting and patiently await God's provision and deliverance. Friend, the good news is that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

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