Faith & Faithfulness

The Proverbs are full of so many amazing nuggets (and floods!) of wisdom. And yesterday, my study in self-control took me to this incredible gold mind of knowledge.

Though it's a short verse, Proverbs 11:6 sure packs a punch!
"The righteousness of the upright delivers them, but the unfaithful are trapped by evil desires."
There are two questions we can ask here - What makes makes a person righteous that they are delivered when temptation strikes? And why are the unfaithful trapped?

Ultimately, as a Christian, my salvation and righteousness comes from Christ and Him alone. But my mind also goes to the verses that talk about Abraham and His righteousness before God. I love what James chapter two says about this great man of faith:
"Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone." ~ James 2:21-24
There's also a big chunk in the "Faith Chapter" (Hebrews 11) about Abraham and how his faith was manifested through his righteous deeds.

So, in examining Abraham's life, we see that he had Faith in God, and that he was Faithful to act according to his belief. As Christians, faith should lead us to faithfulness! That faithfulness does not determine our salvation, and yet, it should be an indicator, or fruit, of our salvation. And as we see in Proverbs 11:6, unfaithfulness leads us to being trapped by evil desires and temptations.

APPLICATION - In studying this verse yesterday, here is the application I wrote down for my own life:
Let's not be like this dude!
If I grow in righteousness by feeding my mind a good, clean diet and by "exercising" and building my spiritual strength through time spent with God and studying His Word, then when temptation hits, it will be far easier to be delivered because of all the good things I've filled my heart and head with! 
But if I don't act in faith, and am unfaithful in my spiritual exercise and diet, then when temptation hits, I'm far more likely to fall to fleshly and evil desires because I'm not strong! Nor am I being faithful to the one who makes me strong!
Just like I can't feed myself junk food and sit on the couch all day and expect to be ripped, neither can I ignore my spiritual body and expect to withstand the chords of temptation - sneaky yet surprisingly strong.

Lord, increase my faith...and my faithfulness!

~~~
Love in Christ,
Ellie

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

People Matter

Image
Today was one of those first time experiences that I'll never forget. I've been a part of our local Church Body - Southwest Wake Christian Assembly (SWCA) - for right around eight years, and although we've had a dozen births and a handful of marriages, we've never had a death of one of Body members. One of our oldest members, Mr. Bob, was just transferred to Hospice this week with likely only a few more days to live on this earth. The whole situation was rather sudden - I knew he'd struggled with health issues for a while and was weak, but I didn't realize how close he's been to death. Today I got to visit him. Unfortunately, he was sound asleep the whole time, but I still got to talk and sing loudly to him. Even if he didn't hear anything I said or sang, I'm sure God will pass along the message when Mr. Bob falls into His embrace. I admit, I cried. It was emotional seeing him there, knowing he won't be here for much longer. I was also sad tha...
Read more

Joy and "Genesius"

Image
So much has gone on in the past couple weeks!! Not only did I finish my joy study (yay!), but I got through the last two weeks of rehearsals and three performances of a Christian Youth Theatre play! (www.spiritualtwist.com) The play, titled "Genesius", focused on the persecution of early Christians in Rome, 303 AD. It explicitly shared the Gospel, and touched on themes like sacrifice, surrender, faith, love, joy in trials, and much more! I was HUGELY blessed to be able to be a part of this production, and know I will never be the same, especially after the role I played. My character's name was Claudia. Not only was she a Christian, but she was also a noblewoman, which was less common in those days. Her (fictional) husband was also an important official and a close friend of the Emperor, Diocletian. When Claudia and her daughter, Lydia, are captured and brought before the Emperor (which happens during the play), he tries to get Claudia to renounce her faith, first by a...
Read more

Dance Before the Lord

Image
Today I read 2 Samuel 6. This is when David and all of Israel are bringing the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem. The first time is a failure (the dude touches the Ark and dies, David gets spooked, and lets some other guy take care of it for a while), but I focused my study on the second part of the chapter, when they're bringing it in again the right way. It says that David danced before the Lord (and subsequently all of Israel) with "all his might". There were shouts, and trumpets, and other musical instruments blaring, I'm sure. Then David began "leaping and dancing" in celebration and thankfulness before the Lord. Not only is David held in honor by the people for this whole-hearted display (as we find out later in the chapter), but David also blesses the people by giving them all food. However, David's wife Michal (Saul's daughter), despises and condemns David for his dancing, saying that he made an utter fool of himself before the people....
Read more