Through Faith in Christ


Philippians 3:9
“and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ – the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.”

It is important not to be self righteous, It is so easy, especially for me, to look at my self, and begin to to think, “Well I’m not as bad as them so I must be doing good. Seriously I did that good thing earlier I know I am on the right because of that” even in this thinking I take the focus off of what Jesus did for me and put it on me and how I got out of bed ten minutes early. How foolish is this? I also put emphasis on what I do and how I can make myself pure and holy. When stated like this it is very easy to see the skewed thinking; however, in our own minds we have mastered the art of self ratification. Here in Philippians Paul states that he wants to be righteous in God’s eyes, righteous not by anything he himself did but righteous through God by faith. Now this “by faith” part confuses me slightly, because wouldn’t that mean Paul had a part to play in his own righteousness? The part of simply having faith? Well to some extent I would say yes but hear me out, the only faith that will get us anywhere is faith in Jesus Christ so the act of faith is taking the focus off of ourselves and in so doing we cannot feel self righteous since we are looking to God for our righteousness.
Application
Often times I find it hard to put my faith in God. I’ve never had to worry about a roof over my head, or food in my stomach, seriously aside from training here in Guatemala I’ve never lacked a hot shower when I wanted it. Along with this wonderful program have come some large expenses and I would like to see God provide for them so this week I will pray fervently the God will completely cover my airplane ticket to Cambodia as well as the cost of the next seven months of this program. In this way I will shift the focus off of what I can do to gain the needed funds and put it on God and His power to provide everything I ask or think.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Lord on High

Psalm 93:4 “Mightier than the thunder of the great waters, mightier than the breakers of the sea – the Lord on high is mighty.” The Lord on high is mighty. We just finished our Khmer classes are getting ready to start into more of ministry work we will be doing for the next five and a half months. As I am getting ready for this change I realized that I had grown very impatient, I wanted to start moving and shaking Cambodia when our feet hit the ground. Since being here, I’ve realized that waiting for God’s timing is not only necessary but very rewarding. I’ve seen through many people’s life stories how waiting for God brought about God’s will and how when we try to forge ahead in our own timing we always mess up what we are intending to speed up. Even then, I am blown away by how God chooses to take our mistakes and manifest Himself and His goodness through them. He is mightier than we have or ever will be able to give Him credit for. God truly is the Lord on hig...
Read more

Whoever Finds His Life...

Matthew 10:39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. As we prepare to leave Cambodia I was struck by this verse. When I got here I was expecting to run hard and to do everything I could in my own strength to bring glory to a God I barely knew. This season has been the complete opposite. I have had to sit still and let God walk before me. I have literally had to die to myself and my ideas, everything I thought this time would be. I've had to daily lay down my pride and anything that wreaks of me; I have had to ask God to stand in my place. Before Ignite I thought I had found my life only to realize I had completely lost it. Through my time here in Cambodia God has been revealing to me His truths. He has showed me the path I thought I'd left. My world has literally been flipped upside down. (Or rather, I suppose, right side up.) Things I thought I was good at, I realize now are actually some of my bigge...
Read more

Now Faith

Now Faith is the assurance of things hoped for the conviction of things not seen Hebrews 11:1 ESV “Now faith”, that in itself is such a strong statement. It means that faith is now . That there is no waiting for faith. The verse goes on to say how faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. In the New King James Version the word “assurance” is replaced by the word “substance”, read this way faith is not only an idea, it is also tangible to us right now. It is so important to understand that faith was never meant to be blind, it is meant to be very clearly known. God wants me to know that my faith is not in vain. I am assured my hopes will come true if they are in accordance with the word of God. James 1:17 says, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the Heavenly lights, who does not change like the shifting shadows.” NIV He is a good Father, with my best interests in mind. He wants to r...
Read more