Kept By the Power of God Through Faith

Dear Weekly Readers!  God’s Peace!

Thank you for your many prayers as my wife and I have traveled about doing work in the Lord’s Vineyard here in the USA!  

We are safely home now and I am happy to share more of God’s Word with you on a regular basis!

Please enjoy the below article!   May God Bless your Week!   John R.

"...KEPT BY THE POWER OF GOD THROUGH FAITH..."
(1 Peter 1:5)

This brief phrase is taken from several verses in this first epistle of Peter in which the Apostle is encouraging the persecuted believers in an area of the world that we know today as Asia.  Please read this entire passage from 1 Peter 1:1-9 wherein Peter is encouraging these brothers and sisters in faith to hold fast to the Lord knowing that through the resurrection of the of the Lord Jesus Christ, they would receive an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and eternal.

As I thought about this phrase of being "kept by the power of God through faith," I began to think about faith.  What do we really mean when we use this word?  The main meaning, I believe, is that of entrusting ourselves whole-heartedly into God's hands.  The Apostle Paul stated it most clearly in his second epistle to Timothy:  "...I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day" (2 Tim. 1:12).

Our Lord, a while before he was to be crucified, counseled his disciples to "believe in him" (Jn. 14:1).  Several times during their discipleship training, Jesus chided them for their "little faith" or "lack of faith." (Mt. 6:30, 8:26, 14:31, 16:8, 17:20).  Are we any different?  We sing and say we believe, but do we truly?  Since God has always proved himself faithful, why do we not always trust him?

There are several reasons why we do not trust God.  Probably the chief reason we do not is due to our carnal nature.  Our faith is not in God, but in ourselves.  We rely upon our own abilities, strength, wisdom, capabilities, etc.  Added to this way of thinking, we have been taught and encouraged to rely upon other sources and resources-- our employment, pastors, counselors, the government, technology, doctors, lawyers, etc, I suspect we have become so accustomed to these and others means of handling life's issues, we take little notice of our need for the Lord.  Yes, we believe in him for our salvation, but what about for everything else?  Yes, in times of storms, turmoil, dangers, severe illness, economic collapse, destruction of dwellings, and other disasters, we call out of fear and desperation to God.  Yet when the causes have passed, we return to our old ways.  In effect, we have done as did Israel in the days of Jeremiah.  They had forsaken the fountain of living water and hewn out for themselves fountains that hold no water (Jer. 2:13).

Faith in God is to be a constant, consistent, daily trust.  In effect, it is an act of resignation.  After all, no matter what the situation or circumstances of life, we are not capable of handling it.  We tend to being stressed--mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually.  The faithful who are described in the Epistle to the Hebrews, chapter eleven, are examples to us of how faith is to function.  God has called us to dying to ourselves.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his book, The Cost of Discipleship, states that when Jesus calls us to follow him, he bids us to die.  When the Apostle Paul wrote in Rom. 6:6 that "our old man is crucified with Christ", it means that we are no longer to function by the powers, ingenuity, and abilities of our carnal nature.  It is in Christ that "we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28).

Surrendering our own independence and resigning ourselves into God's hands is not our natural desire.  We have inherited this carnal attitude from Adam and Eve which they thought was independence; it is not independence, but slavery.  Jesus, alone, is the One who can break our bonds of sin and death.  Only through the Holy Spirit's power working through the Word of God can we be taken captive by the Lord wherein and whereby we will have true freedom.  Though our heart is changed to love, honor, and obey God, the battle still goes on between the spirit and the flesh.  May we honestly and truly repent of our self-centered rebellion and rejection of the Lord's loving, merciful, total care of us, and yield our whole body, soul, and spirit to our One True Lord!  God help us to trust him always and ever!

Pr. Wayne Juntunen