Lifeless and dead. Those are two words I could define myself as. Without Christ, I am empty. Without Christ, my life is meaningless.
But the way I live my life comes into account here. Am I living in a dead faith, or has my faith caused me to face death to be brought into life? Meaningful life. Purposeful life. ETERNAL life.
I find so often that I take on the name of Jesus, but do not truly act upon it, nor do I claim its power. And as a beautiful friend of mine reminded me recently, 2 Timothy 1:7 says, God did NOT give us a spirit of timidity, but of POWER, of LOVE, and of SELF-DISCIPLINE! Why do I live my life so apart from these things that God has freely given? I seem to pick-and-choose my moments of acting in faith, weighing the cost and sacrifice to myself. It's kind of like a one foot in the world, one foot in the Word kind of life and that is detestable! That is lukewarm. I love how Paul puts it in Philippians 3:7-8... "But whatever was to my profit, I now consider LOSS for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider EVERYTHING a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ."
Wow.
That is beyond what belief is. Belief is a mere mental acceptance of a claim as truth. No, Paul's statement is bold, all-out, FAITH talking. I was curious about what the definition of faith was, and the definition I found was a COMPLETE CONFIDENCE in a belief. Not just acceptance. Confidence!
I have been living in a spirit of timidity, but as I have been reading my bible I keep coming across people who really risked their comfort for the glory of God's kingdom to be established. Which brings me back to what has been on my heart lately. Am I living with dead faith, or faith I would die for?
In 'Don't Waste Your Life', John Piper writes: "On the far side of every risk - even if it results in death- the love of God triumphs. This is the faith that frees us to risk for the cause of God. It is not heroism, or lust for adventure, or courageous self-reliance, or efforts to earn God's favor. It is childlike faith in the triumph of God's love - that on the other side of all our risks, for the sake of righteousness, God will still be holding us. We will be eternally satisfied in Him. Nothing will have been wasted."
One thing that paints such a vivid image of risk to me is the Christians in Rome who were fed to the lions. Can you even fathom what it would be like to stand against a Colosseum of people cheering for your blood to be spilled? How is your faith now? As the lions are let loose, do you feel terror or peace?
Maybe it's different. Maybe you are your school. No crowds. Just one person. Except this person has a gun, and they ask you if you believe in God, and you know you will die for it. How is your faith now?
I don't know about anyone else, but most times it doesn't even take a lion or a gun to cause me to compromise, and to fail to claim what I know to be true. It's as simple as me overhearing a conversation between two people that don't know God, that laugh at how silly christians must be for believing in a God they can't see and a bible that 'isn't true', and me pretending not to have heard at all. Or maybe, maybe someone actually asks what I believe, and I bulk and act ashamed instead of confident.
There, I said it.
John Piper goes on to write, "If we starve, [Jesus] will be our everlasting, life-giving bread. If we are shamed with nakedness, he will be our perfect, all-righteous apparel. If we are tortured and made to scream in our dying pain, he will keep us from cursing his name and will restore our beaten body to everlasting beauty."
Christians are still dying for their faith today. And maybe that's not what my life will come down to. Perhaps I won't face physical torture for what I believe. Maybe I won't be stoned or thrown to the lions, or even jailed. Persecution can come in more discrete ways, and I believe these days it does.
I want to have what it takes to face guns and lions - sure DEATH, for my God. I want to have confidence and boldness to live my faith out, even if it simply means having no one to eat lunch with. Most of all, I crave a living, growing, deepening faith that will burn hotter as the fire of affliction comes against. That is my prayer, and not just for myself... I pray fervently that we would all rise out of the ashes of dead faith into a faith that we'll die for.
2 Peter 1:3-4
His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
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