Build Up – I

Hebrews 11:¹ “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (NKJV)

Faith is basing your life on the truth that God is who He says He is and that He will do what He promised to do. I anchor my whole life with no backup plan, my only plan is a plan A and that is God, plan B God, plan C God, plan D God. I am anchoring my life on the fact that God is who He says He is, and He will do what He has promised to do. If you can anchor your life on God, believing that God is who He says He is and that He will do the things that He says He will do – that is faith. Just anchor your life on Him. However, for some of us, the truth is that our faith is weak. It is not that you do not have faith, it is just that it is weak. How does faith become weak?

#1. Lack of INTEREST. Faith becomes weak when there is a lack of interest. The things of God that used to interest you, that used to fire you up, you do not show interest anymore. Your faith becomes weakened. David said I was glad when they said to me, let us go into the house of the Lord (Psalm 122:1). When your interest lacks and dwindles, your faith becomes weak. That is when you see husbands saying to their wives, ‘you go and pray for us’ – lack of interest. And wives saying to their friends, ‘My husband goes to church and prays for us, so I take it easy’ – lack of interest. Parents not serving God but telling their children that it is good for them to go to church.

#2. Poor Lifestyle CHOICES. Poor choices, and choosing to do certain things in certain ways, weakens your faith. The solution is a change of behaviour. In Christendom, it is called Repentance. The power of Christ to make you make a U-turn, that is Repentance. Change of behaviour cannot happen by your strength or by your power, but through the power of Christ. Unfortunately, rather than changing their behaviour through the power of Christ, a lot of people want to change their beliefs to match their behaviour. So, instead of changing their behaviour to match their belief in God and what God has said concerning them, their health, homes, marriages, schools, and finances. They change their beliefs to line up with their behaviour.

God wants you to change your behaviour to line up with your belief in Him. Do not change your belief to line up with your behaviour. You shoot yourself in a foot when you do that. The story is told of a young man whose youth Pastor said to him, ‘You started drinking, what is going on? The young man’s response was, ‘Did you not say that Jesus turned water into wine? W.W.J.D means What would Jesus drink.’ He was changing his theology, and his belief to match his behaviour.

Prayer (song): Give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning. Give me oil in my lamp, I pray. Give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning. Keep me burning ’til the Bride Groom comes. Amen!