"Knowings... Doings"

"Knowings… Doings"

     

     Our memory verse for this week speaks to the truth that our faithfulness to God originates and proceeds from His faithfulness to us.

    "Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for He is faithful that promised" (Hebrews 10:23).

    We "hold fast" based upon "He is faithful".  More pointedly, our knowledge and understanding of the Lord's trustworthiness enables us to trust and submit ourselves unto Him.  By definition, those who "live by faith" must possess confidence in the One to whom we have committed our life and well being (Romans 1:17).  We cannot fulfill our calling if we do not well know the perfectly faithful nature of our Heavenly Father's heart and hand.  Thus, the Christian life involves the increasing discovery of who God is in character, nature, and way.  "Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (II Peter 3:18).

   This truth establishes our walk with the Lord in the most personal terms.  Our doings proceed from our knowings, as it were.  To the degree we have discovered in both doctrinal and experiential terms the faithfulness of God will be the degree to which we trust and obey Him in the challenges of life.  We believe or disbelieve someone's word based upon how well we know the person.  In our relationship with the Lord, this determines how well we access by faith the power to walk in faithfulness to Him.  One of the saddest verses in Scripture involves the home country of the Lord Jesus Christ.  "He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief" (Matthew 13:58).  The Lord's fellow citizens did not trust Him because they did not really know Him.  Thus, He did not work because God directs His activity in human hearts and lives based upon grace received by faith.  Our Heavenly Father purposes our lives to profoundly relational.  If we do not experience His working, the problem can always be traced back to the failure to know Him well enough to trust and submit ourselves to Him in faith.  Always.  Again, to the degree we know our Lord and His faithfulness will be the degree to which we respond to Him in our own Christ-enabled faithfulness.

   Thus, we set forth in this moment and forevermore in the determination to better know our Lord and understand His truth.  This involves the directing of our hearts to Him in prayerful and personal terms, along with a Bible consistently read and the fellowship of like-hearted believers who encourage us in our quest to know the Lord.  We also live in much expectation that our Father desires that we know Him well enough to consistently trust and obey Him.  We therefore join the Psalmist in anticipation of God's working to reveal His faithful heart - "My expectation is from Him" (Psalm 62:5).  Such hope will not be unfulfilled as our Lord reveals the Trustworthiness that leads us to trust, and to the life - His life - that always flows from the fount of grace that leads to faith and faithfulness…

"He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water."

(John 7:38)

Weekly Memory Verse

     Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for He is faithful that promised.

(Hebrews 10:23)