Do You Have Proven Faith? – Part 3

By Greg Sanders

When life is hard, we do not like to try new things. When life is hard, we want to lean on things we know will work. Give me the medicine that I know works. Give me the comfort food that I know satisfies me. When life gets hard we naturally default to things we have proven. So let me ask you this: “Do you have a proven faith?” Do you have a faith that has been proven before so you know you can lean on it today? If not, this series is about how to develop proven faith. Welcome to part 3 of “Do you Have Proven Faith?”

Today’s Lesson: Trust God’s power to provide.  

Hebrews 11:17 By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, 18 even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.”[a] 19 Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.

 Genesis 22:5 He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”

Abe trusted God to provide. We can see his confidence expressed in the words he uttered to his servants, “We will come back to you.” Abe knew that God was going to take care of him. Abe knew that you never lose when you trust God. Billy Graham once said, “We can be certain that God will give us the strength and resources we need to live through any situation in life that he ordains. The will of God will never take us where the grace of God cannot sustain us.” He was saying that you never lose when you trust God. Abe knew that God was not testing him to destroy him, but rather to somehow develop Him. He trusted God’s power to provide.

How can I trust God enough to step out and experience proven faith?

 First, realize that every step of faith is a step toward God’s provision. Every step that Abe took in obedience to God’s call took him closer to God’s provision. What if Abe would have stopped walking up that mountain? Instead of having a proven faith, he would have had a problem faith. Why? Because there would always be that one issue he did not surrender. That one thing He did not trust God with. Let me just take a second and encourage those who have been walking in obedience toward God in a certain area of your life. Don’t quit walking. Each step you take is a step toward your provision. Abe took a lot of steps before he saw God’s provision and his faith became proven faith.

Second, remember that God always blesses obedience.

Genesis 22:11 But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. 12 “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.

 John Ortberg says, “One of the great illusions of our day is that we can have Jesus’ life without following Jesus’ way.”
When we obey Him, He blesses us. When we obey Him, we discover Him in ways like never before. When we trust Him enough to follow Him, we discover we have a proven faith. It’s a faith that is more than just a head knowledge. We know because we have experienced His faithfulness ourselves.

To move from having a theory about God’s faithfulness and having a proven faith occurs as we trust God’s power to provide.

Today’s Challenge: Be willing to discover proven faith by trusting God with all of your life. If He is asking you to obey or surrender in an area of your life, trust Him. He is not trying to keep something from you. He is trying to draw you into a new knowledge of Him. Respond with trust.

Blessings

Greg

P.S.

Sunday night my wife Megan spoke a moving message about how God has developed proven faith in our lives. If you are in a season where your faith is being proven, I encourage you to give it a listen. Just go to our web page: www.camdenfirstassembly.org and click on “sermons” or look us up on itunes.